Two women who caught the new XFG Covid strain, also known as American Covid or Stratus, have described their experiences as cases double and hospital admissions rise five-fold this month. Latest figures from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) show positive Covid cases recorded in hospital settings climbed from 5.9 per cent to 7 per cent in a matter of weeks.
Worst symptoms after negative test
Georgia Bondy, 32, from Walthamstow, said the most alarming part was how unwell she felt after she had started testing negative. Bondy, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), first noticed a scratchy throat on September 6 before testing positive for Covid the following day.
During the week she was testing positive, she experienced shortness of breath but said she was not particularly tired and was still able to work. However, after she began testing negative, her condition deteriorated.
"I was exhausted," she told The Mirror. "I couldn't stand up for long, it felt like I couldn't breathe properly." She also described struggling to move around normally and said it took a while for her to recover.
Rash as a new symptom
Another 34-year-old woman, from Burgess Hill, who previously caught Covid in 2020, said her latest infection brought back familiar symptoms of a cough, sore throat and crushing fatigue, but there was one unexpected difference - a furious, itchy rash that appeared across her body.
"It really knocked me for six this time," the unnamed sufferer said. "I had a heavy head, [like] it was filled with concrete." Her symptoms initially began with cold-like signs, alongside a small rash on her neck that appeared on a Friday before disappearing after a couple of hours. By Sunday morning, the rash had spread to her face, leg and neck.
Worried she might have measles, she contacted her mum, who works in a hospital and suggested the rash could be connected to Covid. The woman subsequently took a Covid test, which came back positive.
Distinguishing Covid from flu
Wendy Lee, deputy superintendent pharmacist at Well Pharmacy, said Covid remains a respiratory infection, with symptoms that can overlap with those of colds and flu. She highlighted a hoarse throat as a possible early sign of the XFG variant. "It is the symptom that many patients have reported as an early sign."
The UKHSA said on October 8 that the variant had been circulating in the UK and other countries for around a year. Lee said a rash is not commonly recognised as a symptom of Covid or flu, although skin changes can sometimes occur when the immune system is activated.
Lee urged people who are eligible for vaccination to take up the offer when contacted, and advised people to maintain good personal hygiene and stay at home when unwell to reduce the risk of spreading infection. For most healthy adults, a bout of Covid or flu will mean a miserable few days at home in bed, but frail and vulnerable patients - particularly the immunosuppressed - should be especially concerned, because the virus could be fatal.
