In a new review study, researchers found that persistent cough and fever have been confirmed as the most prevalent symptoms associated with COVID-19.
Other major symptoms include fatigue, losing the ability to smell, and difficulty in breathing.
The study is one of the biggest reviews ever conducted into COVID-19 symptoms.
The researchers also acknowledge there is likely to be a large proportion of people who had the virus but did not display symptoms.
The research was done by a team from five universities including the University of Leeds in the UK.
The study ratifies the list of symptoms listed by the World Health Organisation at the start of the pandemic.
The team combined data from 148 separate studies to identify the common symptoms experienced by more than 24,000 patients from nine countries, including the UK, China and the US.
Of the 24,410 cases, they found:
78% had a fever. Although this tended to vary across countries: 72 percent of fever reported by patients in Singapore and 32 percent in Korea.
57% reported a cough. Again, this varied across countries, with 76 percent of patients reporting a cough in the Netherlands compared to 18 percent in Korea.
31% said they had suffered fatigue.
25% lost the ability to smell.
23% reported difficulty breathing.
The researchers believe the variation in the prevalence of symptoms between countries is due, in part, to the way data was collected.
Of those patients who needed hospital treatment, 17% needed non-invasive help with their breathing; 19% had to be looked after in an intensive care unit, 9% required invasive ventilation, and 2% needed extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation, an artificial lung.
This study confirms that cough and fever were the most common symptoms in people who tested positive with COVID-19.
This is important because it ensures that people who are symptomatic can be quarantined, so they are not infecting others.
One researcher of the study is Ryckie Wade, a surgeon and Clinical Research Fellow at the Leeds Institute of Medical Research.
The study is published in PLoS ONE.
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