Doctors are increasingly unable to differentiate COVID-19 from allergies or the common cold, as the illness's symptoms, such as dry cough and loss of taste or smell, are becoming less common, with milder disease primarily affecting the upper respiratory tract.
"It isn’t the same typical symptoms that we were seeing before. It’s a lot of congestion, sometimes sneezing, usually a mild sore throat," said Dr Erick Eiting, vice chair of operations for emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City.
According to Eiting, the sore throat usually arrives first before congestion.
Additionally, the Zoe COVID Symptom Study which collects data on self-reported symptoms in the UK found that sore throats became more common after the dominant omicron variant in late 2021, while loss of smell became less widespread.
Hospital admissions declined compared to the summer and fall of 2021, and doctors now describe a clearer, more consistent pattern of symptoms.
"Just about everyone who I've seen has had really mild symptoms," Eiting said of his urgent care patients, adding, "The only way that we knew that it was COVID was because we happened to be testing them."
