All Covid symptoms you need to know about after four new ones detected in study
| Published date | 11 February 2021 |
| Date | 11 February 2021 |
| Publication title | Daily Mirror, The: Web Edition Articles (London, England) |
The hallmark symptoms of Covid-19 are a new and continuous cough, fever, and loss of a sense of taste and smell.
Anyone with those classic three warning signs is urged to self-isolate and get a test immediately.
But the free NHS test is presently only offered to people who have one of the trio of official symptoms.
The emergence of new variants in the UK -including the Kent strain, the South African variant, and the Bristol variation of the original coronavirus -has led experts to closely monitor changes in how the virus attacks and spreads.
Researchers from two different studies say there could now be 16 symptoms in total, including the official three and some suspected ones too.
Experts say these are the lesser-known symptoms of coronavirus we should all be aware of -suggesting you may need to isolate even if you don't have one of of the official three.
Scroll down for the full list below...
Scientists believe one reason the virus has spread so rapidly around the UK and the rest of the world -killing more than 2million people -is because one in three people are estimated to be asymptomatic.
But other symptoms connected to the deadly bug are similar to other seasonal illnesses, which could lead people to mistake Covid-19 infection for something less sinister.
A new study this week identified four key symptoms commonly reported by people with coronavirus.
One of the four -the chills -is a new finding and had not previously been identified in ongoing symptom tracking research in the UK.
The new study involving more than one million people in England revealed the chills, a loss of appetite, and muscle ache were all linked with contracting Covid-19.
The study found that the more symptoms people showed, the more likely they were to test positive for the virus.
However around 60% of those with Covid-19 did not report any signs they had caught the bug in the week leading up to taking a test.
The researchers estimated that if everyone who had the three official symptoms were tested, it would only pick up around half of all symptomatic infections.
But they claimed if the additional four symptoms they had identified were included, an estimated three-quarters of symptomatic infections could be picked up.
The study also found age differences in the likelihood of certain symptoms -which you can read more about in our full explainer below.
All but the chills had previously been highlighted in an earlier Zoe Covid Symptom Study.
The Zoe researchers found the most commonly reported six outside of the three official symptoms are: headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle pains, diarrhoea, skin rash, and confusion and delirium in elderly people.
Researchers in the leading UK study, working with epidemiologists at King's College London, are also keeping a close eye on 'Covid tongue'.
The study tracks the symptoms of more than 4million people globally, and the UK app users' entries have been used by the Office for National Statistics ONS to predict case numbers across the UK.
The researchers have been warning people with Covid still present with less common symptoms that don't get on the official Public Health England PHE list -such as skin rashes.
They have also recently provided a list of early warning signs, and published a study in the British Medical Journal about the six most common clusters of Covid symptoms, which you can also read more about below.
Three official NHS symptoms
1. New, continuous cough
The NHS says 'continuous' means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours.
If you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual.
The persistent cough symptom is more often reported by adults aged between 18-65 than by the elderly or children, the Zoe Covid app study of a sample of 4,182 individuals with positive test results found.
According to the Imperial study, children were less likely to report the cough or fever compared with adults.
2. High fever
This early warning sign is usually one of the first key symptoms to appear -and disappears fastest, researchers say.
The NHS says a fever means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back. The health service advises you do not need to measure your temperature.
However in both children and adults, a temperature 38C is considered to be a fever.
To determine whether a child has a fever, you should check whether they feel hotter than usual when you touch their back or chest, and whether they feel sweaty, or look or feel unwell.
According to the Zoe Covid app researchers,40% of all age groups reported having a fever in the first seven days, and this is why this symptom -along with the loss of smell and persistent cough -is still among the key ones to be aware of.
3. Loss of senses of taste and smell
This is also known as 'anosmia.' Many people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have noted this classic symptom lasting for weeks or months even after a very mild infection.
The NHS says you should get a test if you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.
Some 'Long Covid' sufferers have described a 'rotting' smell.
Loss of taste or sense of smell symptoms can be experienced in other conditions such as a cold or sinus infection.
However experts say a sudden loss...
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