Is it a cold or COVID-19? New variants mean new symptoms

Think a sore throat and runny nose are just another cold? These could be the last symptoms of COVID-19 now that the highly contagious delta variant of the virus is fueling a new wave of cases in Utah.

If you have symptoms, health experts advise you to get tested.

“More and more people are finding that COVID-19 only causes symptoms of the common cold. You know, sore throat, runny nose. Not as much cough, higher fever, etc. Said Dr Eddie Stenehjem, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, the region’s largest healthcare provider.

Stenehjem told reporters at a virtual press conference on Tuesday that while the evolution of symptoms and their link to the delta variant first detected in India have yet to be validated, this is what providers are reporting as as COVID-19 cases increase.

For those suffering from cold-like symptoms, he said it was “absolutely imperative” that they be tested for the virus.

“COVID-19 is an upper respiratory infection, period. So if you have the signs and symptoms of a cold, it could be COVID-19, ”Stenehjem said. “It’s possible that we are seeing some kind of symptom progression due to the evolution of the variant. But it’s also possible that we just see a difference in symptoms depending on age. “

The doctor noted that last winter, when the elderly were hit hard by the virus, symptoms sometimes reflected a cold. Now, with over 80% of that population vaccinated against the coronavirus, it is younger, almost always unvaccinated Utahns who get sick and these symptoms are more prevalent.

This raises the question of whether the symptoms are different because of the delta variant, considered to be more virulent, or because people infected with the virus belong to a different age group, now widely between 25 and 60 years old, Stenehjem said.

Another infectious disease physician from Intermountain Healthcare, Dr Brandon Webb, told Deseret News in June that cases of COVID-19 caused by the delta variant might initially look like a bad cold, with a runny nose and a discomfort rather than body aches, fever, headache, diarrhea and other symptoms usually associated with the virus.

Webb, warning as the delta variant was set to become the dominant viral strain in Utah, said it’s important for those who think they may have a cold to self-isolate and be tested for COVID-19 even if they are vaccinated, to make sure they don’t spread the virus unknowingly.

Stenehjem said on Tuesday the state was seeing a slight increase in coronavirus cases, with some hospitals admitting double the number of patients in the past week. Less than 5% have been vaccinated against the virus and “from a caregiver’s point of view, it’s just really disappointing because these are preventable hospitalizations”.

At the same time, Stenehjem said vaccinations had peaked “at relatively low numbers”.

The Utah Department of Health reported on Tuesday that more than 2.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the state since last December, a daily increase of 4,678. That’s a far cry from the early this year, when nearly 10 times as many hits were given in a single day.

471 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths from the virus have also been reported: two women from Salt Lake County hospitalized at the time of their death, one, 45-64 and the other, 65-84; and a Davis County man, aged 45 to 64, also hospitalized at the time of his death. There are 231 people hospitalized with the virus in Utah.

The seven-day moving average for positive tests is 490 per day, with 3,683 people tested and 6,409 tests performed in the state since Monday. The seven-day moving average for the percentage of test positivity when all results are included is 8.7% and 12.9% when multiple tests performed by an individual are excluded.

Utahns 12 and older are eligible for the vaccine, and just over half of the entire population has received at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine. But less than 45% of all Utahns are considered fully vaccinated, which means it’s been two weeks or more since their last dose.

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Governor Spencer Cox had hoped that 70% of adults in Utah would have received at least one injection by July 4, but he apologized on Monday after admitting that an error in the calculation of the doses administered by the the federal government had led him to falsely announce last week that the target had been reached. while the actual number was just over 67%.

” Good. We screwed up. Due to a reporting error, we have not yet reached 70% of our adult vaccinations, ”the governor said in a tweet taken up by Politico and other news outlets. “I promised to admit our mistakes and hold us accountable. I hope you forgive us – and know that we have made changes so that it doesn’t happen again. “

Stenehjem said the focus should not be on achieving so-called herd immunity, a time when enough people are protected from the virus for it to stop spreading as the population is no longer susceptible to infection.

But COVID-19 is constantly evolving and may “be with us for years to come,” he said, like the flu that requires updated annual vaccinations against the latest strains. While Utah grapples with the fast-spreading delta variant, 14 cases of the lambda variant found in Peru have already surfaced in the state.

So far, vaccines approved for use in the United States are believed to be effective against the variants. Stenehjem said that rather than giving Americans booster shots like vaccine maker Pfizer is proposing, it might be better to get more people around the world vaccinated to help prevent more variants from emerging.

This includes more Utahns. According to the state health department, 14,900 of 15,949, or 93.4%, of COVID-19 cases identified in Utah between May 1 and June 25 have occurred in unvaccinated people . During this same period, 91.3% of the 1,049 people hospitalized and 96% of the 77 deceased were not vaccinated either.

“We talk a lot about variants. We talk a lot about boosters. There are all these lines of conversation that can confuse people, ”Stenehjem said, adding that the Utahns shouldn’t be sidetracked. “Let’s focus on the task at hand. And that task at hand is to get more people vaccinated. “

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News