It's NOT just a cold

[Tatapie]

AIBU to think the NHS should change the "if you have one of the 3 main symptoms" advice for Covid testing to "if you think you've got a cold please get a test" . Two people I know have recently tested positive and had only what they describe as normal cold symptoms. Unfortunately one of them persisted in thinking it was a cold until a close contact tested positive and they'd been to work etc in the interim.
It seemed in March the gov / nhs definitely didn't want everyone with a sniffle getting tested but I wonder if that has/ should change. Tier4.

You could have a point OP

Yes I wonder about this too. DH and I have had muscle aches but no temp, cough or changes in smell or taste. On this basis we wouldn’t be entitled to an nhs test. Tier 4 too.

There’s people having tests when they had nothing but diarrhoea over on the Coronavirus thread, and saying diarrhoea is a symptom when the NHS website does not list it as one.

@Minky37

Yes I wonder about this too. DH and I have had muscle aches but no temp, cough or changes in smell or taste. On this basis we wouldn’t be entitled to an nhs test. Tier 4 too.

You can book a test anyway, as far as I understand it from other posts on here you simply tick that you have a symptom and go for the test. There's no shortage now and no one checks.

Diarrhoea is most definitely a symptom of SARS coronaviruses. Google Metropole Hotel + SARS

I had a sore throat and cold before I got 1 of the 3 symptoms on day 4
I work on a respiratory ward and the junior doctors only had a cold till one did her lateral flow, now others are unwell it needs changing from the 3 main to any symptoms of cold and flu

I tested positive before Christmas with only loss of taste and smell, and later a cough.

I thought the opposite of the op, I was expecting cold symptoms but I’ve had far worse colds. It was nothing like a cold.

Everyone I know who’s had it has sailed through it but I absolutely understand that that isn’t always the case.

I had none of the main 3 symptoms at any point, and yet a positive test. I had aches, pains, headache, loss of appetite, raging thirst, horrible aftertaste when I ate anything.

Agree completely and I think the main reason we are where we are. Too many people passing it on with minor symptoms thinking it can't be Covid because they don't have the 3 main symptoms of more severe infection, at least not to start with.

There seems to be a much broader range of symptoms now - I know four people who tested positive with really bad stomach pains and sickness - they ended up in hospital because they couldn’t keep anything down and were severely dehydrated and thus got tested and it was positive.
I also know three other people who tested positive and only had a headache, dizziness and upset stomach.

I don’t think the cough, fever, etc is as useful as it was in identifying it

Please get a test if you have cold symptoms. My dd had cold symptoms and tested positive.

Dh did not want to test, it was 'just a cold' but I did as I think children present differently.

All her friends tested positive and had cold symptoms, and quite diverse too, so I would encourage people to make their own decisions.

Also completely agree - we tested positive and had stuffy noses, headaches, aches - but none of the big 3 symptoms which one is supposed to have. I booked a test because we had a close contact and weren't feeling well, but if the close contact hadn't let me know they were positive no way would I have thought we had covid. The other people who tested positive also didn't have the big three symptoms. Crazy!

Yeah, I just tested positive with cold symptoms. Also have a funny tummy - anyone else get that? Feels exactly like morning sickness when pregnant and also diarrhoea. DH positive too and he has a weird tummy, like bottomless hunger.

Yes I think it's unhelpful that people are checking the nhs website and coming up blank.
I know you could just tick a box anyway to get a test but if you're a rule follower you're going to feel uncomfortable doing this.
Maybe the new strain is producing different symptoms and the advice needs updating.
If we've got testing capacity let's just test anyone who doesn't feel well!
Sorry maybe should have put this on the coronavirus thread.

Everyone I know who has tested positive recently hasn’t had the main three symptoms. I’m off to get a test in an hour. Temp 37.6, aching, weird headache, numb face, swollen eye, cold and shivery, swollen glands and scratchy throat. It’s probably not CV but with the kids going back to school I’d rather be sure.

It’s getting difficult now as anything and everything is a symptom. The last two people I know who tested positive had back ache as an only symptom.

Then there’s the asymptomatic types.

I don’t know what the answer is.

My son had an upset stomach and a sore throat. I admittedly fibbed to get a test. He was positive.

If you're mixing among people you're going to get mild colds all the time though.

I have been saying the same for weeks. Most people I know didn't develop the three main symptoms until a few days after testing positive.

If I had waited for any of the three syptoms I wouln't have tested for another 4 days and would have continued to work with the elderly, passing it around nicely. No wonder the number are rising fast, there are more symptoms than three.
My first was a thumping headache worse than my migraines that lasted nearly 24 hours.

Completely agree OP, if it wasn't for our childminder testing positive days earlier we wouldn't have bothered getting a test as we only had v mild cold symptoms. Both DH and DD tested positive.

This time of the year you will get colds though .
The symptoms of a cold are not necessarily Covid as so many have no symptoms.
Is it possible you have a cold and Covid ?
I understand though you should be able to get a test now regardless of any symptoms but at the minute that's not we are supposed to do .

I've been saying this since mid October, the 3 main symptoms are SO outdated as the virus has progressed. Of course those 3 symptoms need to be updated, you're right.
As the NHS in certain areas gets overwhelmed, I despair.

Yanbu.
We'd start to clear up a lot more cases that way.
Don't other countries and the WHO have a longer list?

The zoe app asked me to get a test because I had a dodgy tummy a cold and sore head I tested negative

Sometimes it is just a cold