The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, has presented common symptoms since the first cases were known at the end of 2019, but others were identified during the first wave in spring 2020, now during the second wave, those symptoms are becoming less common and new symptoms are beginning to appear.
As for the most common and recognised symptoms since the beginning of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) lists them as a dry cough, fever and tiredness. The Ministry of Health adds to these common symptoms the sensation of shortness of breath or dyspnea - difficulty breathing.
Other less common symptoms that affect some patients include aches and pains, nasal congestion, headache, conjunctivitis, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of taste or smell, and skin rashes or colour changes on the fingers or toes, as stated on the WHO website, which also points out that these symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. Spain´s Ministry of Health, in a document updated on October 2, added other symptoms present in "some cases": chills, sore throat and vomiting.
The Carlos III Health Institute, similarly lists cough, fever, loss of smell and taste and fatigue as common symptoms. However, they rule out sneezing as a symptom and specify that mucus is a rare symptom.
The latest consensus is the technical report published by the Ministry of health which was updated on November 12, listing the most frequent symptoms among 55,924 cases analysed to date as:
1. Fever (87.9%)
2. Dry cough (67.7%)
3. Asthenia (38.1%)
4. Expectoration (33.4%)
5. Dyspnea (18.6%)
6. Sore throat (13.9%)
7. Headache (13.6%)
8. Myalgia or arthralgia (14.8%)
9. Chills (11.4 %)
10. Nausea or vomiting (5%)
11. Nasal congestion (4.8%)
12. Diarrhoea (3.7%)
13. Hemoptysis (0.9%)
14. Conjunctival congestion (0.8%).
The skin lesions identified during the first wave, classified into five types: maculopapular, vesicular, urticarial, pseudopernious (similar to chilblains) and livedo-reticularis-necrosis, are not being observed in the second wave so far, according to what dermatologists have revealed.