A Covid warning about the symptoms of a new strain that strikes patients at night

An immunologist warned about a new strain Corona virus infection covid-19 can be the cause of a variety of symptoms – including those that appear at night.

Omicron BA.5 is a highly contagious sub-variant which is of concern as it is contributing to a new wave of infections around the world, including in the UK.

Scientists find differences with previous strains, including with the ability to re-infect people within weeks of contracting Covid.

A leading immunologist has now suggested that this may be the cause of the new symptom in patients.

“One additional BA.5 symptom I saw this morning was night sweats,” Professor Luke O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin told an Irish radio station in mid-July.

“Isn’t that amazing?” he added.

BA.5 is causing a surge in cases in a number of countries along with BA.4, including Europe and Australia. This too became the dominant option in the US.

“The disease is slightly different because the virus has changed,” Professor O’Neill said Newstalk.

He added: “There’s a certain immunity to it – obviously with T-cells and so on – and that combination of your immune system and the virus being slightly different can cause a slightly different disease, oddly enough, night sweats is a feature.

“But it’s very important that if you’re vaccinated and you get rehabilitated, it doesn’t progress to severe disease, that’s a message to remind people of.”

BA.5 was first found in South Africa in Februaryone month after the identification of BA.4 in the same country.

Both have since spread around the world and raised concerns about a resurgence of Covid infections.

It comes as coronavirus UK cases rose by 7 per cent to 3.8 million in the week to July 14, compared with 3.3 million the week before, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Growth is still driven by the aforementioned subvariants, the institution noted.

The latest figures represent the highest estimate since late April, but are still below the record high of 4.9 million reached in late March.