What Does a COVID Sore Throat Feel Like?
Key takeaways:
Most people who get coronavirus disease (COVID-19) experience mild to moderate respiratory illness.
Some people with COVID-19 complain of having a sore throat.
People who have had it describe a COVID sore throat as scratchy and irritated.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Since the World Health Organization (WHO) classified it as a global pandemic in March 2020, new variants have emerged. Not everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 experiences a sore throat. But for many variants, a sore throat is one of the most prominent symptoms.
A sore throat could range from feelings of scratchiness to severe pain. Some people say a COVID sore throat feels like allergies. Others say it is like having strep throat. Many treatments and over-the-counter (OTC) medications are available to treat COVID-19. These options can help ease the symptoms that may come with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Each patient experience is unique, even if given the same diagnosis. Here’s what four people who experienced it say a COVID sore throat feels like:
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Dry, itchy, constant irritation
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Victoria Garoutte was a human resources manager on a military base in Annapolis, Maryland. Her family relocated to Thetford, England, in fall 2021. She and her husband came down with COVID-19 in March 2022 after being exposed at a dinner with friends.
“I didn’t have any symptoms, initially,” Victoria says. She recalls feeling very tired at first. She tested positive before any major symptoms showed up.
Then, she felt a sore throat she describes as being dry and itchy.
“It was like an itch you can’t scratch,” she says.
Victoria compares the feeling to strep throat, which she’s had in the past. Strep was more painful, especially when swallowing, she says. This was more like a constant feeling of having something stuck in her throat.
“It was more annoying than painful,” she says.
Her sore throat lasted about a week. She found that drinking tea and taking Tylenol helped with the discomfort.
Like seasonal allergies
For Kayla Schadegg, a mother of two in Topeka, Kansas, a COVID sore throat felt like allergies.
Kayla, who manages a children’s fitness center, says she was careful not to bring coronavirus into her home during the pandemic — in part because her oldest daughter has Down syndrome. Being vaccinated and working from home helped ease the family’s worry.
“We didn’t know how it [COVID-19] could impact her,” Kayla says. “She has some medical complications. So, we wanted to be really careful not to bring it into our house.”
Eventually, Kayla did return to in-person instruction. At the end of April 2022, she contracted the Omicron variant. The whole family displayed symptoms. They did not test their baby, but Kayla, her husband, and her 5-year-old daughter tested positive.
“My throat was scratchy,” she says when she started to feel symptomatic. “It was not a stabby pain. It was very much reminiscent of minor throat irritation, like allergies.”
For her, drinking tea and honey helped relieve her symptoms.
Razor-sharp pain
In Cape St. Claire, Maryland, Cara Malfi’s children began to show COVID-19 symptoms on Christmas night in 2021.
The first symptoms were scratchy throats and headaches. By the next morning, they had congestion and earaches.
“The rest of the family fell like dominos over the next 48 hours,” says Cara, a photographer. The entire family tested positive as well.
“Me and my fourth grader had razor-sharp sore throats,” she says. “We felt like we had strep throat and were in constant pain.”
The two of them tested negative for strep throat, but their painful symptoms lasted about 7 days. They found some relief with cough drops and Motrin, she says.
“It was the worst sore throat I have had since being a kid.”
Severe swelling
Molly Stackhouse, a mental health provider in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, got COVID-19 in February 2022 after her daughter brought it home from elementary school.
Her daughter had no symptoms but tested positive by chance at an unrelated doctor’s appointment. “I brought her to the doctor because her knee hurt,” Molly says. But Molly and her husband ended up testing positive as well.
“My first symptom was the sore throat,” she says. “It was the worst symptom. I lost my voice, too. It was all in my throat.”
For Molly, the pain associated with the sore throat was quite severe. She describes it as being “extremely painful, worse than strep. It felt like razor blades and was really swollen.”
Her breathing was painful, and her sore throat developed into a severe throat infection that required antibiotics, she says. Her doctor ordered an ultrasound to examine her severe sore throat but didn’t find anything more. In time, her symptoms went away.
What does the doctor say?
Sore throat is a common symptom of COVID-19 illness. COVID-19 infection can cause upper respiratory tract infections (URI). Sore throat — or pharyngitis — is a type of upper respiratory tract infection. No two people experience a URI the same way. The same is true for pharyngitis.
Some people experience less inflammation, so they feel symptoms like irritation, dryness, or fullness. Other people develop more inflammation. So they feel more pain, especially with swallowing. They may even notice a change in their voice or swelling in the lymph nodes in their neck.
There’s no medication to cure a sore throat caused by viruses. Antibiotics won’t help. But things like warm or cold fluids (depending on your preference) and OTC pain relievers like Motrin or Tylenol can help.
Common symptoms
Because coronavirus is a constant presence in our lives, you or someone you know may experience COVID sore throat symptoms, too.
In many cases, sore throat symptoms are often mild and can be treated with OTC medications at home. But if you have a persistent fever, trouble swallowing or speaking, or neck swelling, you may need to get medical help right away.
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