The most prominent sign that you have COVID-19 infection, as per a study
Cough,
fever and shortness of breath are a few popularly associated symptoms
with COVID-19 infection. As per a new international study, there is
another set of symptoms that exhibit a stronger sign of the COVID-19
infection: loss of taste and smell. These two symptoms are the clearest
signs that you have the coronavirus infection. Read on to know how
serious your COVID symptoms are.
The study
Experts
from the Harvard Medical School University College London, King's
College London and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel surveyed
the data from three digital surveillance platforms in the U.S., U.K. and
Israel. The survey included a total testing pool of over 10 million
respondents, 658,325 individuals tested positive for coronavirus.
It was found that loss of smell and taste was a reliable COVID signal. In fact, these two symptoms were consistently the strongest predictor of the COVID 19 infection across all platforms over time.
Here are some other common symptoms of COVID 19 infection:
Headache
As
per the study published in JAMA Neurology, around 8 per cent of COVID
positive patients experienced neurological symptoms, headaches being the
most common among them.
Sore throat
Though
a sore throat can be the result of common cold and flu, do not assume
it's unrelated to COVID-19, especially if you have a sore throat with
some other symptoms. A sore throat can be a potential early sign of
COVID-19 infection.
Sore throat typically presents itself with other symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, loss of smell and taste and congestion.
Fatigue
If
you suddenly start experiencing fatigue, it can be an early sign that
you have contracted COVID-19 infection. According to the World Health
Organisation, 38 per cent of COVID patients report fatigue, making it
the third most common symptom of corona infection.
Fever
In
most covid cases, patients present a fever first. Though experts say if
you only have a fever, you might not need to go for a covid test. But
if you have other symptoms accompanied by a fever, you must get yourself
tested.
You can also be infected with coronavirus and have other symptoms with no fever at all.