New NHS Covid guidance says do this for 5 days if positive as XEC strain surges

People have been warned to do one thing for five days if they test positive for Covid amid a rise in cases. The issued guidance on what you should do if you get ill as experts believe a new strain could become dominant in the UK.

While isolation rules are no longer mandatory, you should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days after the day you took your test, the NHS says. Further to this, you should avoid contact with vulnerable people 10 days after testing positive.

This warning comes as experts believe a new strain could be highly transmissible due to a number of mutations it carries. Known as the XEC variant, it was first discovered in Germany and has since been found in 27 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America.

On top of this, Covid cases are rising in the UK again. The latest data from the (UKHSA) shows cases of Covid increased by 21.6 percent in England in just one week.

In the seven days up to September 25, there were 2,797 recorded cases of Covid - an increase of 530 from the week prior. And in the week up to September 20 there was a 50 percent increase in Covid deaths in England, with 134 recorded.

What to do if you have Covid symptoms

Even if you don’t take a Covid test, the NHS has recommended that you try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms and either:

• Have a high temperature
• Or do not feel well enough to go to work, school or do your normal activities.

“You can go back to your normal activities when you feel better or do not have a high temperature,” the NHS says on its website. “If your child has mild symptoms such as a runny nose, or mild cough, and they feel well enough, they can go to school or childcare.”

Symptoms

Symptoms of XEC are thought to be similar to other strains of Covid and can include:

• A high temperature or shivering (chills) – a high temperature means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
• A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling tired or exhausted
• An aching body
• A headache
• A sore throat
• A blocked or runny nose
• Loss of appetite
• Diarrhoea
• Feeling sick or being sick.

Booster jabs will be available until December 20 this year. They will be offered to those deemed most vulnerable to Covid, which include:

• Over-65s
• People aged between six months and 64 years with health conditions that make them more vulnerable
• People living in care homes for older people
• Frontline health and social-care staff, including in care homes for older people

The NHS will contact eligible patients directly, but they can also book their own appointments now via the NHS App, GPs, pharmacies, drop-in clinics, or by calling 119. Anyone also entitled to the flu jab, will be offered this at the same time.