People with COVID-19 often experience gastrointestinal symptoms. An analysis of abdominal scans suggests that blood clots in small arteries may starve bowel tissue of oxygen in the most severely ill patients.
In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, doctors believed the main symptoms to be fever, cough, muscle pain, and fatigue.
As case numbers rose worldwide, doctors increasingly noted gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
Liver damage is another recent observation, particularly in severely ill patients. SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, uses a receptor protein called angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on the outer surface of cells to break into them.