Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID 19) pandemic, which originated in the city of Wuhan, China, has quickly spread to various countries including India. It has a range of clinical manifestations. There is still insufficient data on symptoms that easily help to identify mild and moderate cases which is necessary to contain the spread. Aims: In this study, we aim to identify the presenting symptoms of Category A (mild) and Category B (moderate) patients diagnosed to have COVID 19. Settings and Design: A prospective study was conducted in 56 adult patients with laboratory confirmed COVID 19 infection over a period of two months in a tertiary care centre in Bangalore, India. Methods and Material: Clinical data was collected from these patients and then they were classified into two categories: Category A which included the mild cases and Category B which included the moderate cases. Those with severe and critical illnesses were excluded from the study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 22.0 Released 2013 was used to perform statistical analyses. Results: A total of 56 patients were included in the study of which of which 30 were males and 26 were females. Diabetes mellitus was the most common co morbidity. The most common clinical presentation among both the categories of patients were fever (85.7%) and cough (82.1%) followed by fatigue (78.6%), sore throat (58.9%), ageusia (33.9%) and anosmia (25%), headache (23.2%), vomiting (19.6%). Shortness of breath (88%) and chest pain (32%) were present mainly in the category B patients. Gastrointestinal symptoms (10.7%) were also reported in a few category A patients. Conclusion: Fever and cough were the most common findings among both the groups. Shortness of breath and chest pain were identified as symptoms of concern among the moderate cases of COVID 19 and hence these can help clinicians to predict the disease severity. Gastrointestinal symptoms present in those with mild disease even without respiratory symptoms was an important finding.
Keywords: COVID 19; Category; Mild; Moderate; Fever.