I have a coughing, sneezing, malaise-y work partner at the moment. Does she have Covid? A cold? I don't know. Covid is a respiratory illness with symptoms being very similar to other viruses. The whole loss of smell and taste thing like the wild type strain had doesn't seem to happen as much anymore at all.

August Covid Cases In Mass. Present These Symptom Changes

The summer surge is underway in the U.S. with some states being more affected than others, but what about symptoms?

I have known two people to test positive recently and have been "more sick" that their previous infection with Covid. This is anecdotal, of course. How "more sick", though?

Systemic Symptoms (Body aches and fatigue)

Most people suffer from sore throats with a Covid infection (current strain KP311). This is probably the most common symptom according to health experts. What is different about this strain? Systemic symptoms, meaning whole body.

"I've have had some patients tell me symptoms are more severe than with prior COVID-19 infections, with more 'systemic' (versus predominantly upper respiratory with earlier Omicron variants) symptoms," Dr. Kelly McKee, MD, MPH, chief medical officer at GeoVax Labs, says. -parade.com

Less fevers

People dealing with Covid during the summer surge (August) in Massachusetts are reporting less fevers, apparently.

"I would say we are seeing fewer fevers (temperatures above 100.4) and less loss of smell and taste as we did early on," Dr. Purvi S. Parikh, MD, immunologist with Allergy & Asthma Network, says.

Preventing a Covid infection is the same as it has always been. Masking, avoiding large crowds, hand washing, vaccines can all help.