New COVID-19 symptoms are being discovered daily, and experts now believe that skin rashes might also be a symptom of the rampaging virus.
One small study in Italy found 20 percent of COVID-19 patients had skin problems, while anecdotal evidence from other countries indicates a link between dermatological problems and the virus.
In March, a research letter published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology was the first to detail how COVID-19 may affect the skin.
The researchers studied 88 COVID-19 patients at Lecco Hospital, in Italy’s Lombardy region, and found 18 (20.4 percent) had skin issues. Of the total, eight patients developed skin complaints when their COVID-19 symptoms started, and 10 after they were hospitalized. 14 patients had a red rash, three had hives, and one had chickenpox-like blisters. The torso was the most affected area, the team said, and the lesions usually healed in a few days. These issues did not seem to correspond to how sick the patients were, according to the letter.