Dominican Republic adds to the list of existing COVID symptoms

As the infection's prevalence has increased, new variants have been discovered, and additional clinical symptoms have been added or linked with Covid-19 infection over time. Patients today mostly report an itchy throat, severe headache, loss of appetite, and vomiting and dizziness in varying degrees.

The original sequencing of the virus has been expanded to include these manifestations, which were previously linked to a respiratory illness with fever, dry cough and breathing problems. Later on, symptoms included loss of taste and smell, tiredness, nasal congestion, and backache.

As the Ministry of Health's advisor on Covid-19 issues, Dr. Eddy Perez Then stated that new variants have been discovered. He pointed out that new symptoms were linked with the virus when the original strain was passed to the gamma and delta variants, recalling that other symptoms, such as gastric type, were observed when the ancestral strain was transmitted.

“People are now complaining more about stinging in the throat, which they didn't before, and some have claimed that the headache is worse and vomiting occurs," noted a renowned researcher. "All of this is anecdotal since there has not been a study conducted on today's symptomatology of Covid-19 in the Dominican Republic."

“Therefore, at this point,” he continued, “we do not have that profile, but we do have some different symptoms, which are manageable and don't require hospitalization.”

Natural progress of the viral strain

Dr. Perez Then understands that these less severe symptoms indicate that the subvariants of omicron aren't as deadly as delta or what happened with other strains, suggesting that the virus is following its natural course of lowering mortality, as it always does.

"You're in a new world, and it's one where there's a lot of competition," he stated. He stressed that as time goes on, the Covid-19 virus would become less dangerous. Furthermore, more people have been immunized while others have had it many times, making the situation much different from when it began.

According to him, the government is conducting research on the effectiveness of certain experimental therapies that can cut the time it takes before a patient feels better from five to three days, allowing them to be used more quickly.

Congestion of nose and throat

In May 2021, infection experts stated that, although symptoms differ from person to person, nasal congestion and discomfort in the throat were frequently observed among patients with the Covid-19 virus, in addition to fever and loss of smell in some patients.

Infected persons reported these symptoms and signs that contributed to fever, dry cough, and respiratory distress as the most common in December 2020.