Are your eye symptoms from COVID-19 or just allergies?
Since early 2020, we’ve learned that coronavirus symptoms can vary widely from one person to the next. Two cases of COVID-19 can be as different as night and day.
In some cases, COVID-19 can cause eye symptoms.
Some coronavirus infections don’t cause any symptoms at all. When COVID symptoms are present, they can range from mild — like a common cold — to very severe.
The most serious cases require hospitalization and can be life-threatening. Knowing which symptoms to look for can be the difference between staying home and seeking potentially life-saving treatment.
COVID-19 symptoms
Doctors now know that COVID-19 can cause much more than respiratory-related symptoms alone, thanks to many months’ worth of medical data. Some symptoms of COVID, like the loss of taste and smell, are so unusual that researchers still don’t completely understand why they happen.
Health officials and doctors all over the world have turned to the World Health Organization (WHO) for guidance during this global health crisis. The WHO groups coronavirus symptoms into three types:
Common symptoms:
Less common symptoms:
Aches and pains throughout your body
Sore throat
Diarrhea
Headache
Rash
Loss of taste and/or smell
Discolored fingers or toes
Serious symptoms:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adds a few more symptoms that warrant emergency medical attention:
Any new level of confusion
Difficulty waking up or staying awake
Skin, lips or nail beds that take on a pale, gray or blue appearance
When COVID symptoms appear
COVID symptoms can take as many as 14 days to develop after you’ve been exposed; however, it’s most common for symptoms to appear between 4 and 5 days after exposure (if they appear at all), the CDC says.
The CDC notes that almost everyone infected with the coronavirus will show symptoms before the 12th day passes (based on a study linking 97.5% of participants to the 12-day timeline).
If you think you might have been directly exposed to someone with COVID-19, the CDC recommends quarantining at home for two weeks. They add that you don’t need to quarantine if you’re fully vaccinated or have tested positive for COVID-19 sometime in the past 3 months and recovered, without experiencing any new symptoms during that time.
IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE COVID-19... Call your family doctor. If you think an eye or vision problem is related to the coronavirus, call an eye doctor. Make sure to call ahead; many doctors’ offices have changed walk-in appointment policies and safety measures since the start of the pandemic.
