Upper respiratory symptoms similar to a cold are growing more prevalent among persons infected with COVID-19, docs say

Are your sniffles the result of a common cold, or could it be Covid? Doctors say even fully vaccinated people need to pay attention to Covid-19 symptoms, such as headache and congestion. NBC News

Doctors are beginning to notice Covid-19 cases that look more like a very bad cold, especially in areas of the country where the highly contagious delta variant is quickly spreading.

While shortness of breath and other lung issues remain among the most worrisome Covid-19 symptoms, it appears upper respiratory complaints — marked by congestion, a runny nose and headache — may be increasing.

"We've seen a number of folks with cold-like symptoms," said Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., an internist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

The potential shift in symptoms is not to say that the illness should be brushed off as just a cold. Respiratory droplets emitted from coughs and sneezes can infect other, more vulnerable, people. And cases that start off mild can worsen and become more serious.

"Covid can present in different ways," said Dr. Russell Vinik, chief medical operations officer at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City. "If you think you have a cold, you're infectious, and whether that's Covid or a cold, you should consider getting a test."

Vinik has also seen more people coming in with cold-like symptoms. And previously typical Covid-19 symptoms such as loss of taste and smell are not as commonly reported anymore, he said.

It is not clear why common cold symptoms are increasingly reported in Covid-19 cases, though some experts suspect it could be due to the delta variant, which now accounts for about 20 percent of new cases in the U.S. Arkansas and Utah, where Hopkins and Vinik are respectively based, have some of the highest rates of delta cases in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Indeed, in the United Kingdom, where delta is implicated in more than 95 percent of new cases, researchers say the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are now that of a bad cold: headache, sore throat, runny nose and fever. ...