'Allergy-Like' Red Eyes, A Possible COVID-19 Symptom, Washington Nurse Warns

A Washington nurse warned that redness around the eyes could be a possible symptom of coronavirus disease.

Chelsey Earnest, a nurse working for Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington said that she and her colleagues observed that COVID-19 patients usually sport redness around the eyes and some of them display only that symptom before passing away, the New York Post reported.

"It's something that I witnessed in all of them, they have like allergy eyes," she said. "The white part of the eyes is not red; it's more like they have red eyeshadow on the outisde of their eyes."

Earnest adds that a disaster medical control physician she worked with would ask if patients have red eyes and if they did, they would immediately find a bed for these individuals and treat them as if they would a coronavirus patient.

At least 37 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported at the Life Care Center.

According to CNN, the American Academy of Ophthalmology also informed that there were cases of coronavirus patients having conjunctivitis, which could cause eye reddening while recent researches have shown that the loss of taste and smell could be important warning signs for a virus carrier.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had established the main markers of COVID-19 were high fever, dry cough and shortness of breath but eye issues were not mentioned.

Doctors are working to understand more about the virus as the cases of infection increase all over the country and the world.