Is it allergies or COVID-19?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — It’s the height of allergy season.

“You kind of start to feel a little bit of a constriction,” said Jack Schiavone of Providence.

“Runny nose, hives and things like that,” said Melanie Rainone of Providence. “So, no fun.”

But it’s also the height of awareness for the pandemic. So how do you tell allergy and COVID-19 symptoms apart?

Allergist Dr. Robert Settipane of Allergy and Asthma Centers of Rhode Island says some of the confusion happens when allergy sufferers experience a seasonal asthma with respiratory symptoms like cough.

“They might have wheezing, they might have shortness of breath,” he said. “And that can overlap with COVID-19. But it’s the fever, and the body aches that don’t typically happen with allergies.”

Dr. Settipane says new research is also showing some overlap between allergies and another potential COVID-19 symptom.

“One of the presenting symptoms is conjunctivitis, or redness to the eye,” he said. “But with allergy, the eyes can get red but they’ll also get itchy. I don’t think you get an itch factor with COVID.”

But Dr. Settipane says the pandemic may actually have unexpected benefits for allergy sufferers. Staying home may keep the allergies at bay.

“People are so hunkered down, they’re maybe not getting exposed to a lot of pollen, perhaps,” the doctor said.

And if you do have to step outside, now you have another reason to wear a mask.

“It doesn’t keep out all the pollen, but it keeps out a lot of it,” he said. “Compared to the size of a virus, the pollen grain in much, much bigger. So it’s easily stopped by the mask.”