The United Kingdom has uncovered the latest coronavirus symptom among those with the infection which experts are calling ‘Covid tongue’, Metro UK said yesterday (Jan 14).

According to the report, Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London has told the public to look out for ‘strange symptoms’ because that could be a sign that you need to self-isolate.

The expert said that new symptoms could be mistaken for something other than the Covid infection, urging the public to report such cases immediately in order to prevent a surge in infection numbers. He also urged the public suffering from unusual mouth ulcers or a coated tongue to remain at home, because one in five infected people are showing less common symptoms.


The Professor who is the lead scientist on the Zoe Covid Symptom Study UK Infection Survey says he is seeing increasing cases of people with coronavirus suffering from uncomfortable symptoms in their mouth.

Officially in the UK, the three main coronavirus symptoms are a high temperature, continuous cough and loss or change to smell and taste.

“One in five people with Covid still present with less common symptoms that don’t ’t get on the official PHE list – such as skin rashes [sic]. Seeing increasing numbers of Covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers,” Mr Spector wrote on Twitter.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not listed the new symptoms on its portal.

According to WHO the symptoms are as follows:

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are

  • Fever
  • Dry cough
  • Fatigue

Other symptoms that are less common and may affect some patients include:

  • Loss of taste or smell,
  • Nasal congestion,
  • Conjunctivitis (also known as red eyes)
  • Sore throat,
  • Headache,
  • Muscle or joint pain,
  • Different types of skin rash,
  • Nausea or vomiting,
  • Diarrhea,
  • Chills or dizziness

Symptoms of severe COVID‐19 disease include:

  • Shortness of breath,
  • Loss of appetite,
  • Confusion,
  • Persistent pain or pressure in the chest,
  • High temperature (above 38 °C).