Covid nails: The surprising sign you may have had Coronavirus

They are harmless on their own, and should not cause concern as an individual symptom

Throughout the course of the pandemic, a number of new, sometimes unusual, signs and symptoms of Covid-19 have been discovered.

Now, unexpected grooves on your fingernails have been discovered to be the latest sign you may have had Covid.

Professor Tim Spector, principal investigator of the Zoe Covid Symptom Study app - which is working to track new symptoms of Covid tweeted that “Covid nails are increasingly being recognized as the nails recover after infection and the growth recovers, leaving a clear line”.

Appearing as horizontal indents in your nail, officially known as Beau’s lines, these occur as a reaction to a pause in nail growth due to injury or illness.

They are harmless on their own, and should not cause concern as an individual symptom.

Professor Spector states that, in covid patients, they have been appearing without additional complications such as skin rashes, and they are harmless.

The indentations will grow out with your nail once the underlying illness is no longer a problem, with a full regrowth of your fingernails taking around six months.

Elsewhere in the world, a paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal wrote that a 45-year-old man presented with Beau’s lines on his fingernails and toenails three and a half months after being diagnosed with Covid.

These grooves are not unique to Covid-19, with them potentially appearing as the result of many different illnesses. So, should you see them appearing, do not take this as a sure-fire sign that you have been infected by the respiratory virus.