Coronavirus is an infectious disease which has been confirmed in more than 1.4 million individuals across the world. You could have COVID-19 without showing any symptoms, which is also known as being ‘asymptomatic’. Could you be infected with the virus?
Cases are continuing to rise in the UK, and the government has urged the public to stay at home, to avoid becoming infected or spreading the virus further.
People have been advised to remain indoors, as more than 55,000 UK individuals have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Some patients can have coronavirus without even knowing it, as they may not have any signs of the disease.
But, there are a couple of ways to know that you may be at risk of the infection.
Up to 80 per cent of the population may end up catching COVID-19, yet remaining asymptomatic, it’s been claimed.
The clearest way to know if you’re infected with coronavirus, but don’t have symptoms, is if you’re already living with someone that has COVID-19.
If someone in your household has either tested positive for coronavirus, or has coronavirus symptoms, it’s incredibly likely that they’ve passed the virus to you.
It can take up to 14 days for symptoms to start presenting themselves, so don’t get cocky if you’ve lasted a day or two without running a fever!
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The other way to know that you may have coronavirus is if you lose your sense of smell or taste.
Technically, that’s a symptom in itself, but it’s yet to be recognised officially as a sign of coronavirus.
Some patients have reported feeling absolutely fine, but they’ve only lost their sense of smell.
It’s best to self-isolate if you think you may have picked up coronavirus, but are asymptomatic.
Just because you’re asymptomatic, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person you pass it onto will be, too.
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“It is possible that a large proportion of the population will have COVID-19 yet have no symptoms at all, but we don’t know that yet,” said Dr Mary Lowth.
She wrote for Patient.info: “It seems likely that this will occur more often in the healthiest and the younger age groups, including most children.
“Early research on small numbers suggests it could be 40-50 per cent of cases. It could be even more – figures of 80 per cent have been mentioned. We don’t know.
“Being asymptomatic means that you have no symptoms. However, there are reports of loss of sense of smell in asymptomatic people. Technically even that is a symptom.
“If you live in a house with people with probable COVID-19 infection and you have no symptoms, you may be an asymptomatic case.
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“You will not know for sure until we have an antibody test. The government is working on this.
“At the moment the test is being evaluated for accuracy. An inaccurate test is worse than no test.”
Common coronavirus symptoms include having a high fever, and developing a new, continuous cough.
If you think you have COVID-19, you must stay at home to avoid spreading the virus further.
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