Searching for a clinically validated definition of “asymptomatic” COVID‐19 infection

We carried out an electronic search in the websites of the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), along with those of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Australian Government Department of Health (AGDH) and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), to identify the referred symptoms (major and/or minor) of COVID-19 infection. Universal consensus (100%) seems to be reached among the five healthcare organisations on symptoms like aches and pains, cough, diarrhoea, fever, headache, shortness of breath, sore throat and tiredness/fatigue, followed by (80% consensus) loss of taste or smell, nasal congestion and nausea or vomiting, and (60% consensus) conjunctivitis. Insufficient consensus has instead been reached for symptoms like chest pain, chills and skin rashes (40% consensus), and especially for loss of appetite and loss of speech or movement (20% consensus). These results suggest that there is still an insufficient worldwide standardization of clinical signs and symptoms of COVID-19.