About COVID-19

COVID-19

How the virus affects people:

• the virus causes respiratory disease that can spread from person to person
• some people experience mild flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat and fatigue
• some people experience severe illness and, sadly, a small proportion die
• some people do not show any symptoms
• older people and people with underlying medical conditions seem to be more at risk of severe illness.

Identifying the symptoms

Symptoms	COVID-19	Cold	Flu
Fever	Common	Rare	Common
Fatigue	Sometimes	Sometimes	Common
Cough	Common (usually dry)	Mild	Common (usually dry)
Sneezing	No	Common	No
Aches and pains	Sometimes	Common	Sometimes
Runny or stuffy nose	Rare	Common	Sometimes
Sore throat	Sometimes	Common	Sometimes
Diarrhoea	Rare	No	Sometimes for children
Headaches	Sometimes	Rare	Common
Shortness of breath	Sometimes	No	No