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At the start of the pandemic, we were trained on the telltale symptoms of COVID: cough, fever, shortness of breath, and loss of smell or taste. But with the coronavirus which has mutated several times over the past year and now causes some cases in fully vaccinated people, these are not necessarily the hallmarks of infection anymore. In fact, the virus looks so different amid the spread of the Delta variant that virus experts say you shouldn’t wait until you develop a fever or lose one of your senses in order to get tested for. COVID.
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Tiffany Mattingly, RN, vice president of clinical strategies at The Health Collaborative in Cincinnati, Ohio, told ABC affiliate WCPO that many people confuse their coronavirus symptoms with elective health issues because symptoms of the Delta variant vary from other strains. “A lot of people think they have sinus infections, it’s allergy season, it’s ragweed time, and they don’t. It’s COVID.” , Mattingly said.
A sore throat is a common sign of a sinus infection and allergies, but doctors say you should now be tested for COVID if you have this symptom or think you have a sinus infection. A major problem with breakthrough infections, according to Mattingly, is that these symptoms are usually much less severe in people who have been vaccinated, which means they may be even more likely to wait to get tested.
“By the time it becomes serious enough that someone decides to take a COVID test, they may have spread it to multiple people because a few days have passed,” she warns. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fully vaccinated people can still spread the virus if they have been infected with the Delta variant, although they are likely to be infectious for a shorter period of time than people without. vaccinated.
“The previous variants generally produced less virus in the bodies of fully vaccinated infected people (breakthrough infections) than in unvaccinated people. In contrast, the Delta variant appears to produce the same high amount of virus in unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. “, the CDC said.
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In June, researchers from the UK published the results of their ongoing ZOE COVID study, identifying the most likely symptoms of the new strain of the rapidly spreading virus. Sore throat was one of the five most common symptoms among COVID cases in fully vaccinated people. Other common symptoms of a breakthrough infection now include headache, runny nose, sneezing, and loss of smell.
But sore throat is also now one of the five most commonly reported symptoms of the virus in unvaccinated people. According to the researchers, this shows “clear changes from the first occurrence of COVID-19 over a year ago.” Other symptoms common in unvaccinated people during the Delta Flare include headache, runny nose, fever, and persistent cough.
“A majority of these [Delta] cases start with sniffling, sore throat “, Gabe Kelen, MD, the director of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins told WMAR, an ABC affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland. “If you have symptoms, don’t assume it’s a summer cold. Even if your symptoms aren’t very strong, what you want to do is make sure you don’t spread it. COVID to someone else who is going to have a very bad outcome. “
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