Let’s just be honest with everyone – if you feel ill, you’ve probably got it
The worst thing about mild cases of Covid-19 is the way the virus plays tricks on you. The first definitive sign, for most people, is a fever. I awoke with one last week and then, like most people, soon began to feel better. That is when the next stage hits you.
Often, it is on about day five or six when the virus goes after the lungs. I had read about scary cases where an otherwise healthy 30-something seems to be over the worst of the illness before suddenly becoming breathless and rushing to hospital. So when I woke up, five days after the fever, and realised my chest felt tight, I couldn’t help but think of the horror stories.
In the event, not much happened. A sore throat came and went for several days. I couldn’t seem to sleep enough and began to suffer that raspy, unsatisfying cough that people had described. My lungs still have a slightly rusty feeling. I have had worse illnesses. But I have never had such a confusing one. I didn’t suffer all of its varied list of symptoms, but I had my fair share. From conversations with doctors who are dealing with many a mild, nonhospitalised case over the phone, my conclusion is that the symptoms list is an awful lot longer than the “fever and dry cough” isolation advice would suggest. It can also include: body aches, headaches, exhaustion, eye pressure, sneezing, a runny nose, a rash, mouth ulcers, nausea, diarrhoea and, most distinctively, a loss of any sense of taste or smell.
What makes the disease so confounding is that even people in the same house, presumably suffering from exactly the
The symptoms list is an awful lot longer than ‘fever and dry cough’
same strain of the virus, can suffer a completely different subset of these symptoms, while a large minority suffer no symptoms at all. It might help if the Government simply told the public to stay away from others whenever they feel generally ill. The online 111 service, which filters only for a fever and dry cough, is probably doing more harm than good by giving virus carriers a false sense of security.