Do You Have Allergies Or COVID – Here’s How To Tell

I think we can all agree that this has been a really weird 18 months. First we had the outbreak of a terrifying illness that swept throughout the world and caused a massive pandemic, and just when we got used to saying the words 'face masks' 'coronavirus' and 'COVID-19' in everyday conversation and things seemed to be calming down, all of the sudden we needed to add the word 'variant' to our vocabulary. Add in a major dose of monsoonal rains and flooding and you have all the ingredients for the "Is this a bout of seasonal allergies or do I have the COVID?"

Well it turns out there are a few things that you can keep an eye on to figure out if you are just suffering from allergies and not from COVID-19. Keep in mind that with the virus and its variants still raging, if you are really in doubt you should definitely get tested for COVID-19 because if you do have it you'll need to quarantine and let people around you know that you have it.

Here is a comparison of some of the symptoms of the two illnesses so you can compare your symptoms:

COVID

Cough-Usually (dry)
Fever-Usually
Muscle aches-Usually
Tiredness-Usually
Itchy nose, eyes, mouth or inner ear-Never
Sneezing-Rarely
Sore throat-Usually
Runny or stuffy nose-Usually
Pink eye (conjunctivitis)-Sometimes
Nausea or vomiting-Sometimes
Diarrhea-Sometimes
New loss of taste or smell-Usually (early — often without a runny or stuffy nose)

ALLERGIES

Cough - Sometimes
Fever - Rarely
Muscle aches - Never
Tiredness - Sometimes
Itchy nose, eyes, mouth or inner ear - Usually
Sneezing - Usually
Sore throat - Rarely
Runny or stuffy nose - Usually
Pink eye (conjunctivitis) - Sometimes
Nausea or vomiting - Never
Diarrhea - Never
New loss of taste or smell - Sometimes often with a stuffy nose