Seven COVID-19 symptoms are more predictive of illness, study saysSeven COVID-19 symptoms can maximize detection of COVID-19 in the community, according to a large study published in PLOS Medicine yesterday that looked at data from England's REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study.Eight rounds of data collection from June 2020 to January 2021 occurred across 1,147,345 English residents aged 5 and older who received a COVID-19 test.
From rounds 2 to 7, 0.4% of 979,079 were positive, and in round 8, which was dominated by the Alpha (B117) variant, 1.4% of 167,646 were positive.By modeling COVID-19 positivity predictability on seven symptoms—loss or change of smell, loss or change of taste, fever, new persistent cough,