The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently added six new symptoms to its list of those used to identify COVID-19.
Originally, potentially infected individuals were told to be on the lookout for fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. The six new symptoms added to the official list are chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell.
This is obviously not an all-inclusive list of ailments those who contract the coronavirus might suffer from, and many of these symptoms can overlap with other seasonal and common diseases like the common cold or the flu.
So the Ohio Department of Health has released a handy little graphic showing how you can tell the difference between the three infections, and how common each symptom is with each disease.
Symptoms can take between two and 14 days to appear after exposure to the coronavirus.
Many cases of COVID-19 are mild and recent expansive testing in Ohio prisons has indicated some infected individuals didn’t even know they had it. In some cases, however, the coronavirus can be serious and even deadly. Until there is widespread testing in this country, we just won’t know the realities of those numbers.
If you think you have coronavirus, or if you have any of those above symptoms and you have trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in your chest, new confusion or an inability to arouse or bluish lips or face, you need to seek emergency medical care immediately.
This article appears in Apr 15 – May 5, 2020.