There are few symptoms more popularly associated with COVID than cough, fever and shortness of breath. But a new international study suggests that 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 According to the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, these two symptoms of COVID are actually the clearest signs that you have the virus.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’s findings and to find out the severity of your COVID symptoms, check if you have one 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 analyzed data reported by patients from three digital surveillance platforms in the U.S., UK and Israel. With a total test pool of more than 10 million respondents, 658,325 individuals tested positive for coronavirus, representing a five percent positive 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 participatory surveillance platform or testing policy”. In fact, these two telltale symptoms were “consistently the strongest indicator of COVID-19 infection on all platforms over time,” explained the researchers. Anosmia and ageusia were highly predictive of a positive test, highlighting the importance of educating the public about a wider range of symptoms.
Read on for more information on the first signs of COVID and a rare symptom, but seriously, see This rare symptom may mean that you have a severe case of COVID.
According to a study published in JAMA Neurology, about eight out of ten patients with COVID have neurological symptoms, and headaches are the most common among them.
Of course, headaches can occur for several reasons, which means that the amount of headaches will far outweigh the amount of positive COVID tests. To learn the top five signs that your headache is a result of COVID, as opposed to another illness, stress or migraine, see This is how to know if your headache is COVID, says study.
Likewise, a sore throat can be the result of a cold, flu, strep – not to mention a number of other possibilities. But instead of assuming it isn’t related, you should always take a sore throat seriously as a potential early sign of COVID.
According to the Physician One Urgent Care, a sore throat resulting from COVID usually presents with other symptoms, including coughing, shortness of breath, congestion or loss of taste and smell. It also tends to develop more slowly than strep throat. And to learn more about how to find this symptom, see How to tell if your sore throat is COVID, doctors say.
If you experience a sudden wave of exhaustion, your fatigue may be an early sign that you have contracted the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization recently determined that about 38 percent of COVID patients report fatigue, making it the third most commonly reported symptom of the virus. And to learn more about this symptom, check If you are more tired than normal, see how to know if it is COVID.
Fever is perhaps the best known symptom of COVID. Often, patients with COVID will have a fever first, 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 elevated temperature.
“You can be infected with the coronavirus and have a cough or other symptoms without a fever, or very low, especially in the first days. Remember that it is also possible to have COVID-19 with even without any symptoms,” he explains Lisa Lockerd Maragakis, MD, senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins. And to find out more about what fever really is, make sure your “normal” temperature is not 98.6 degrees, doctors warn.