It’s the ‘Strongest, Most Consistent’ Sign You Have COVID, Study Finds

There are few symptoms more commonly associated with COVID than cough, fever, and shortness of breath. But a new international study suggests there is another set of symptoms that can reveal a case of coronavirus much more accurately: loss of taste or smell. According to the study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, these two symptoms of COVID are actually the clearest signs that you have the virus. Read on to learn more about the study results and to learn about the severity of your COVID symptoms, see If you have any of these COVID symptoms, the CDC says to call 911.

Using longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys, experts from Harvard Medical School, University College London (UCL), King’s College London, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel examined patient-reported data from three digital surveillance platforms in the US and UK. and Israel. With a total test pool of more than 10 million respondents, 658,325 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, which represents a 5% positivity rate.

They found that anosmia and ageusia (the clinical terms for loss of smell and taste, respectively), were “ubiquitous” and “a reliable COVID-19 signal, regardless of the monitoring platform. participatory or testing policy ”. In fact, these two telltale symptoms were “still the strongest predictor of COVID-19 infection on all platforms over time,” the researchers explained. Anosmia and ageusia were highly predictive of a positive test, underscoring the importance of educating the public about a wider range of symptoms.

Read on for more early signs of COVID, and for a rare but serious symptom, check out This rare symptom could mean you have a severe case of COVID.

According to a study published in JAMA Neurology, about eight in 10 COVID patients have neurological symptoms, and headaches are the most common among them.

Of course, headaches can occur for a number of reasons, meaning the amount of headaches will far exceed the number of positive COVID tests. To learn the five key signs that your headache is the result of COVID, as opposed to another illness, stress, or migraine, check out Here’s How to Tell if Your Headache is COVID, According to the Study.

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Likewise, a sore throat can be the result of a cold, flu, strep, not to mention a whole range of other possibilities. But rather than assuming it’s unrelated, you should still take a sore throat seriously as a potential early sign of COVID.

According to Physician One Urgent Care, a sore throat resulting from COVID usually has other symptoms, including coughing, shortness of breath, congestion, or loss of taste and smell. It also tends to grow more slowly than a sore throat from a strep throat. And for more on this symptom, check out How to tell if your sore throat is COVID, doctors say.

If you experience a sudden wave of exhaustion, your fatigue could be an early sign that you have contracted coronavirus.

The World Health Organization recently determined that about 38% of patients with COVID report fatigue, making it the third most frequently reported symptom of the virus. And for more on this symptom, see If you’re more tired than usual, here’s how to tell if it’s COVID.

Fever is perhaps the most well-known symptom of COVID. Often, COVID patients will first present with a fever, or it will be the only sign of illness. However, experts also warn that having a fever is not a requirement for a diagnosis of COVID, and other symptoms should not be ruled out in the absence of an elevated temperature.

“You can be infected with the coronavirus and have a cough or other symptoms without fever, or very low grade, especially in the first few days. Keep in mind that it is also possible to have COVID-19 with a minimum or even no symptoms ”, explains Lisa Lockerd Maragakis, MD, senior director of infection control at Johns Hopkins. And for more on what actually constitutes a fever, see Your “normal” temperature isn’t actually 98.6 degrees, doctors warn.