Sure Signs You Have Had COVID-19 Before Without Realizing It

COVID-19 can affect many different parts of your body and cause general symptoms that have many potential causes. Some people with COVID-19 do not develop any symptoms.

It’s impossible to know if you’ve had an infection for sure without a positive COVID-19 test, but here are some of the potential signs.

You have developed typical symptoms of COVID-19

Everyone experiences COVID-19 differently, and the symptoms can mimic those of other respiratory infections. If you have developed any of the more typical COVID-19 symptoms, especially after coming in close contact with someone who had COVID-19, this may be a sign that you have it too.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most reported symptoms are:

COVID-19, the common cold, and the flu can be hard to tell apart. Sneezing is not a symptom of COVID-19 and may indicate that you have had a cold or allergies. Shortness of breath is not a typical symptom of the flu, but it is one of the most common COVID-19 symptoms.

You have had a pink eye or other eye symptoms

It is believed that COVID-19 enters your cells via receptors for an enzyme called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The virus enters these receptors by tricking your body into thinking it is the ACE2 enzyme.

ACE2 receptors are found in various parts of your eyes, such as your retina and the epithelial cells that line your white eye and eyelid.

Some people with COVID-19 develop eye symptoms such as:

Eye symptoms are usually accompanied by more typical COVID-19 symptoms, but they may appear on their own in some people.

You have temporarily lost your sense of taste or smell

Loss of taste or smell is commonly reported in people with COVID-19. A study review found that loss of taste or smell was reported in 47% of people and was more common in people with mild to moderate illness.

Some people with COVID-19 also experience distortion of these senses. Symptoms affecting taste or smell often seem to appear before other symptoms.

A August 2020 One study found that in a group of 11,054 people with COVID-19, symptoms affecting smell and taste appeared before general symptoms in 64.5 and 54% of cases, respectively.

You first developed a fever

Symptoms of COVID-19 often appear in a particular order. In a 2020 study published by the University of Southern California, researchers analyzed the development of symptoms in 55,000 people with COVID-19 and compared them to symptoms in 2,000 people with the flu.

They found that the flu most often started with a cough, while the initial symptom of COVID-19 was most likely to be a fever.

A wide range of initial symptoms of COVID-19 have been reported in the scientific literature. Just because you didn’t develop a fever in the first place doesn’t mean you don’t necessarily have COVID-19.

You experience long-term symptoms

Some people who develop COVID-19 have symptoms that persist for weeks or months after their infection. These symptoms have been called long term symptoms.

Young adults, children, and even people with mild illness can develop long-term symptoms. It is not known why some people develop long-term symptoms, but it is believed that long-term tissue damage and inflammation may play a role. Some most reported symptoms understand:

There are four Notable variants of COVID-19 in the United States named after the first four letters of the Greek alphabet:

• Alpha
• Beta
• Gamma
• Delta
• Lambda

These variants appear to be spreading faster than standard COVID-19, but the symptoms appear to be similar. For example, a May 2021 study found that the Alpha variant was not linked to a change in self-reported symptoms in people in the UK.

Some variants can cause certain symptoms more often than other variants. Early research published by the University of Edinburgh found that the Delta variation is associated with an increased risk of hospitalization.

According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the presence of COVID-19 variants in a test sample can potentially alter the results of some COVID-19 tests. Most tests should always be accurate, but the FDA continues to monitor tests that might be affected.

Currently, commercially available COVID-19 tests only indicate if you have COVID-19. They don’t tell you if you have a particular variant. A COVID-19 sample must undergo a process called genomic sequencing for healthcare professionals to identify variants.

Some rapid COVID-19 antigen tests can provide results within minutes. However, they have a relatively high chance of receiving inaccurate results.

In a review of studies published in Cochrane,the researchers analyzed the results of 64 studies and 24,087 nose or throat samples. The researchers found that commercially available point-of-care antigen tests correctly identified confirmed COVID-19 infections in 72% of people with symptoms and 58% of people without symptoms.