Summer 2024: The season of travel, outdoor swimming pools, summer thunderstorms… and skyrocketing COVID cases. The virus is everywhere this summer – at least 40 athletes at the Paris Olympics have been infected with variants of COVID, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“COVID-19 is not going away. Our surveillance data shows that the percentage of positive COVID tests is continuing to rise rapidly!” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic prevention, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

North American statistics also show rising infections, emergency room visits, and deaths. In the United States, more than 1,900 COVID deaths were reported in April alone. As of the end of July 2024, more than 16% of all patients tested were positive for COVID. That’s higher than any other spike in cases since the start of the pandemic in 2020!

So how can you keep yourself and your loved ones healthy while you continue to enjoy the summer or get ready to go back to work or school? “It all comes down to the basics,” says Dr. Donald Dumford, an infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic Akron General. “Take care of yourself, eat well, sleep well, and stay hydrated,” Dumford tells Fortune. “For those traveling, I strongly encourage you to wear a mask at the airport and during your flight.”

What are the symptoms of COVID?

The symptoms of COVID can appear anywhere from two days to two weeks after infection. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, or there may be no symptoms at all. In the early stages, mild illness typically causes weakness and fatigue, followed by stuffy nose, sore throat, dry cough, and a possible fever.

Typical symptoms of COVID in 2024 are:

Runny nose, nasal congestion
Cough, sore throat
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fever or chills
Headaches, muscle pain, body aches
Weakness, fatigue, apathy
Loss of taste, impaired or lost sense of smell
These symptoms are very similar to the symptoms of flu, colds and acute respiratory infections. Therefore, testing is the only way to distinguish COVID from flu and other respiratory diseases.

In moderate to severe cases of the disease, patients have difficulty breathing, chest pain, confusion, and a high temperature may not subside even when taking antipyretics. In this case, immediate medical attention is required.

Rare symptoms of coronavirus

Rarely, coronavirus can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting and diarrhea if there is an indirect gastrointestinal infection when the virus enters the upper respiratory tract.

Other rare symptoms of COVID-19 in 2024:

Severe headache
Hemoptysis
Increased heart rate
Chest congestion
New strains of coronavirus

Experts believe that the new strains have not become more dangerous for humans, and there is every reason to believe that the coronavirus has become a seasonal infection.

In 2023, a new variant of the omicron strain COVID-19 EG.5 "Eris" appeared. According to data, this strain accounted for 26% of cases of the disease last year, since it is quite viral, that is, contagious. At the same time, most of those infected had a mild form of the disease - a sore throat, cough and runny nose lasted only a few days.

Similar symptoms are also seen in the BA.2.86 "pirola" strain, which was first reported in July 2023. It differs from other coronavirus variants by the largest number of mutations in the spike proteins that occurred in a short period of time. This makes "pirola" the most contagious of all currently circulating COVID-19 strains, and it is also able to bypass immunity after vaccination or a previous illness.

When infected with another COVID strain, the "kraken", the disease is often asymptomatic or mild - most often, patients experience weakness, a slight increase in temperature, cough, runny nose, etc. Just like "pirola", this strain of the virus is more contagious and more resistant to the body's immune response.

What is dangerous about new strains
So far, scientists have not discovered specific symptoms characteristic only of new strains, but they are more contagious, which means they spread faster. Concerns are raised by the fact that the “pyrrol” and “kraken” variants are able to bypass the immune system after vaccination or a previous illness, making antibodies less effective.

“We should not forget that people with reduced immunity and chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular and oncological pathologies, obesity, asthma, can suffer from the disease in a severe form,” experts warn.

Be Healthy editorial team