Like coronavirus cases overload hospitals and each state is considered a “danger zone”, knowing if you have the highly contagious virus is the key. Who better to consult than Johns Hopkins, the private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, which has been at the forefront of tracking COVID-19 since it hit this coast? “Symptoms can begin between two and 14 days after infection with the coronavirus,” says the university. “The most common symptoms are” the following. Keep reading – and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss out on these Clear signs that you’ve had the coronavirus.
“Fever is not a disease in itself. It is a symptom that something is not right in the body,” says Johns Hopkins. “It could be a bacterial or viral infection.” It could be COVID-19. “The normal body temperature ranges from 97.5 ° F to 98.9 ° F (36.4 ° C to 37.2 ° C),” they say. “It tends to be lower in the morning and higher in the evening. Most health professionals consider fever at 38 ° C (100.4 ° F) or more.”
“COVID-19 can cause symptoms that are mild at first, but then become more intense over five to seven days, with worsening coughing and shortness of breath,” says Johns Hopkins. The cough is usually dry. “For some, it develops pneumonia.”
You may find it difficult to breathe – and it may get worse. “COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, can cause pulmonary complications, such as pneumonia and, in the most severe cases, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, “says Johns Hopkins.” Sepsis, another possible complication of COVID-19, can also cause permanent damage to the lungs and other organs. ” takes time,” Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, MHS, a pulmonary disease specialist in Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, says. “There is an initial injury to the lungs, followed by scarring. Over time, the tissue heals, but it can take from three months to a year or more for a person’s lung function to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, calls this “myalgia”. “Myalgia describes muscle aches and pains, which can involve ligaments, tendons and fascias, the soft tissues that connect muscles, bones and organs,” says Johns Hopkins. “Injuries, trauma, overuse, tension, certain drugs and illnesses can cause myalgia.” COVID-19 too.
Sore throat is widely included in the lists of the most common symptoms. “Common signs of coronavirus infection include runny nose, cough, fever, sore throat and shortness of breath,” says Johns Hopkins. Read on to see those that are less common, but no less worrisome.
“The symptoms of COVID-19 vary from person to person, but the overwhelming majority of infected people have one thing in common: they have lost some of their sense of smell and taste,” reports Johns Hopkins. “The most original discovery that occurs is that patients can lose their smell and taste in isolation”, Nicholas Rowan, MD, an assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says. “It happens suddenly and in many cases without any other symptoms.” The hospital adds: “Emerging data show that the new coronavirus directly infects the nerve area of smell, he adds, and that may be how the virus manages to enter its human host.”
“COVID-19 can have a variety of symptoms, but one potentially dangerous symptom that most people are not particularly excited to talk about is diarrhea,” says Johns Hopkins. “It is estimated that 20% of patients with COVID-19 are likely to have diarrhea shortly after contracting the disease.”
You may have a headache, a “head or face pain or discomfort,” says Johns Hopkins, who some have described as a jackhammer. You can also develop a migraine, which may be accompanied by “nausea and vomiting, dizziness, sensitivity to light (photophobia) and other visual symptoms”.
A proud fatigue can last long after you have shed the virus. “There may well be a post-viral syndrome associated with Covid-19,” Fauci told the International AIDS Society last year. It resembles myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME, formerly known as chronic fatigue syndrome, he says. “There is no doubt that there are a considerable number of individuals with a post-viral syndrome that, in many respects, incapacitate them for weeks and weeks after the so-called recovery.”
“The CDC notes that people with compromised immune systems, such as those who recover from COVID-19, are at the greatest risk of developing diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting and nausea,” says Johns Hopkins.
Is your runny nose a cold? Or COVID-19? Discussing your symptoms with your doctor – or looking for a test – is the only way to know for sure.
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You don’t need a fever to get coronavirus. “Yes, you can be infected with the coronavirus and have a cough or other symptoms without a fever, or a very low degree, especially in the early days,” says Johns Hopkins. “Remember that it is also possible to have COVID-19 with minimal or no symptoms at all.”
“Some of these symptoms are very common and can occur in many conditions other than COVID-19,” says Johns Hopkins. “If you have any of them, contact a doctor or health care professional so that they can assess your risk and help you determine next steps.” And follow Fauci’s fundamentals and help stop this wave, no matter where you live – use a face mask, social distance, avoid large crowds, do not go home with people you are not sheltering (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, be vaccinated when it is available to you and to protect your life and the lives of others, don’t visit any of these 35 places you’re most likely to reach COVID.