The common symptoms of COVID-19 are familiar to most people—many having experienced them more than once—and can include fever, cough, runny nose, loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and other flulike affections.
Less commonly known are the skin changes that may occur both before and after the infection sets in. According to Massachusetts General Hospital, skin symptoms may be the only or first sign that someone has contracted COVID-19.
In a study by the American Academy of Dermatology, more than half of the patients with pernio-like lesions and COVID-19 were otherwise asymptomatic. A woman in her fifties, who spoke anonymously to The Epoch Times, said an itchy red rash on her chest was her only COVID-19 symptom and neither she nor her dermatologist related it to the virus until she tested positive….