Asthma and Coronavirus

Asthma is a common lung condition that causes occasional breathing difficulties.

It affects people of all ages and often starts in childhood, although it can also develop for the first time in adults.

There’s currently no cure, but there are simple treatments that can help keep the symptoms under control so it does not have a detrimental impact on your life.

Symptoms of asthma

The main symptoms of asthma are:

• coughing: especially at night or in the cold (if that is your trigger)
• a wheeze: whistling sound when breathing
• breathlessness and/or a tight chest (which may feel like you’re struggling to breathe)

If you develop symptoms of COVID-19 and you have asthma:

• You need to stay at home until you are no longer contagious to others.
• You don’t need to contact 111 to tell them you are staying at home.
• If your COVID-19 symptoms don’t go away after 7 days or get worse, or you are having difficulty breathing, call us for advice, or 999 if you need emergency care.
• If you get an asthma cough and are not sure whether your cough is a symptom of COVID-19 or related to your asthma, please speak to our doctor

Keep following your asthma action plan (if you have one) to manage your asthma and so you know what to do if your asthma symptoms get worse.

If you are having an asthma attack, call 999 for an ambulance as usual, and tell them you have COVID-19 symptoms. Carry on taking all your usual asthma medicines as normal.

Written with advice from Dr Vibhu Kaushal and asthma.org.uk