Importance of Testing as New Symptoms of Covid-19 Identified

A study conducted involving more than one million people across England has identified that there are additional symptoms of the Covid-19 virus other than the three main symptoms officially recognised by the NHS. These recognised symptoms of Covid-19 are a loss of taste and smell, a new persistent cough and a fever, however the study suggests that new symptoms are also chills, a loss of appetite, headaches and muscle aches.

This change in recognised Covid-19 symptoms suggests that many people who potentially had the virus but were not suffering from the original recognised symptoms may not have been tested.

According to Proper Manchester, the study was conducted by researchers using questionnaires and swab tests between June 2020 and January 2021. The React study, spearheaded by Imperial College London, discovered that a variation in systems came with age, with chills being recorded across all ages but headaches mainly seen in children and teenagers, and muscle aches mainly in those ages between 19-54.

Loss of appetite was recorded more frequently in 18-54 year olds and those between 5-17 and those over 55 were less likely to have a fever, persistent cough or loss of appetite.

It was also found in the study that around 60% of participants who tested positive for Covid-19 did not report any symptoms in the week leading up to the test.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the React programme at Imperial, said: “These new findings suggest many people with Covid-19 won’t be getting tested – and therefore won’t be self-isolating – because their symptoms don’t match those used in current public health guidance to help identify infected people.

“We understand that there is a need for clear testing criteria, and that including lots of symptoms which are commonly found in other illnesses like seasonal flu could risk people self-isolating unnecessarily.

“I hope that our findings on the most informative symptoms mean that the testing programme can take advantage of the most up-to-date evidence, helping to identify more infected people.”

At the moment, people are only being advised to get tested if they have one or more of the original recognised symptoms including loss of taste and smell, new persistent cough and fever, however researchers are now estimating that if people who are experiencing these new symptoms were also tested, we may be able to be pick up three-quarters of symptomatic infections rather than half.

It is apparent that the more testing that people can receive, the better the chance of picking up Covid-19 is, no matter what symptoms the individual is suffering with (if any).  At Test Assurance Group (TAG), we offer bespoke, on-site mass community testing solutions which are tailored for individual organisations, employers and their people.