Health officials are warning about a holiday “tripledemic” – a combination of COVID-19, flu and Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV – that is filling up hospitals and prompting the Centers for Disease Control to advise many people to go back into masks.
And, with Christmas and New Year’s set for later this month, the numbers, particularly those of COVID-19 cases, are likely to keep climbing.
The latest CDC numbers from Dec. 8 show just under 14% of Americans now live in communities rated as having “high” COVID-19 community levels, up from 4.9 percent the previous week. Another 38% of Americans are in a “medium” areas and 48% are in “low” areas.
READ MORE: Alabama COVID hospitalizations on the rise again after Thanksgiving
What are the most current COVID-19 symptoms?
The symptoms of COVID-19 have changed as the virus has developed new variant and adjusted to vaccines. According to a report in The Hill, the new symptoms are tied to new dominant subvariants – BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 – that now comprise the majority of cases in the U.S.
The ZOE Health Study, a joint effort by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, King’s College London, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the health app ZOE, has tracked symptoms of the virus as they have changed.
“Since the start of the pandemic, ZOE has continually reported the most common COVID symptoms and how they’ve changed over time. These symptoms have changed for a few reasons, including the introduction of vaccines and the emergence of new variants,” the company said in a statement. “Like every virus, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is constantly evolving, in terms of its ability to spread and the symptoms it causes.”
In October, ZOE said the five most commonly reported symptoms were sore throat, runny nose, persistent cough and headache.
Since then, a headache has become less prevalent but still remains in the top 10. Instead, patients are more likely to experience a blocked nose, sneezing or “a cough without phlegm.”
According to ZOE, these are the top 10 reported COVID symptoms in the last 30 days:
- Sore throat
- Runny nose
- Blocked nose
- Sneezing
- Coughing without phlegm
- Headache
- Coughing with phlegm
- Hoarse voice
- Muscle aches and pains
- Altered sense of smell
All of these symptoms have been listed as COVID side effects since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Missing from the latest list, however, were gastrointestinal-related symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea or vomiting as well as some of the earlier hallmarks of the virus – loss of sense of taste, shortness of breath and fever.