WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the U.S. CDC, has quietly added three new potential COVID-19 symptoms, which brings the total number of possible COVID-19 symptoms to nine. 

Congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea were all added to the federal agency’s list that also includes fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, and sore throat. 

People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness, the agency says. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus, and the agency admits the nine symptoms are not comprehensive of all possible symptoms. 

The new symptoms were quietly added to the list by the federal agency at an unknown date. Our Community Now, a Colorado media outlet, believes the symptoms may have been quietly added May 13. 

The quiet additions of symptoms are not the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic the U.S. CDC has quietly announced new symptoms. 

At the outset of the pandemic, the U.S. CDC only identified three possible symptoms: fever, cough and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. In mid-April, the federal agency quietly added chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell to the list.

Those additions were done quietly, as well, and it is believed Maine’s WGME was the first outlet to uncover those additions.