What does Covid look like in 2024?

Scientists are calling on the government to monitor Covid levels throughout the year amid a summer wave of cases powered by a new variant.

At the moment, infection rates are measured in the general population only from November to March, and this leaves scientists "short on Covid data" during the rest of the year, said the inews site.

But "many of us" know someone who has "come down with nasty cold-like symptoms over the last few weeks", said The Independent and "talk about the resurgence of Covid has started circulating".

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What did the commentators say?

The new dominant variant in the UK, KP.3, which belongs to a group known as the FLiRT variants, accounted for 64% of infections as of 30 June. Although there's no evidence that the variant is any more severe than previous waves, it does appear to be more infectious.

The lack of data is "extremely irritating", Professor Christina Pagel of University College of London told the inews site, especially "when we are in the middle of a significant Covid wave". Restarting wastewater monitoring would be "extremely helpful for giving us early warning of issues", she said.

Until that monitoring is resumed, the only data we have is based on lab tests and swabs taken from people in the healthcare system. Those suggest that the number of infections a year ago were a fraction of what they are today, and prove that Covid is "not seasonal", said Simon Williams of Swansea University, but "an unpredictable and year-round virus".

Another argument for greater monitoring is that doctors say it's now nearly impossible to diagnose a person with the illness based on symptoms alone. 

Some people with Covid "end up feeling more like they have food poisoning than anything else", said The New York Times. Diarrhoea, lost of appetite, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting are among the "overlooked" symptoms.

Others are confused by the similarity of symptoms for Covid and hay fever. This "respiratory double whammy" is "the battle of the summer", said The Telegraph and "at stake" are "the hearts and lungs of the nation". But the BBC noted that the official list of Covid symptoms "has not changed".

"Every week, we test someone for Covid who I didn't think had it who tests positive," Dr Steven Furr, a family physician, told NBC News. "Then we have others who I'm pretty sure have Covid who test negative."

Dr Bernard Camins, a medical director for infection prevention, agreed that, without a test, "you can't tell nowadays whether it's a cold or Covid".

What next?

The "tug of war" between our immune system and Covid's evolution continues, wrote Nathan Bartlett, Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Australia, on The Conversation.

Covid vaccines now "don't sufficiently protect from infection or suppress virus transmission", which gives the virus more "rolls of the dice" to "find a mutation that helps it evade our immune system and infect our cells".

Moderna has offered hope by announcing a single vaccine that's been shown to protect people from both Covid and influenza viruses – and with a higher effectiveness than vaccines that target one or the other, reported Nature.

Meanwhile, the first phase of human trials studying a possible nasal Covid vaccine has opened. Researchers believe it may provide higher levels of protection against emerging variants than the vaccines given via injection, ABC News reported.