Why does your throat hurt? What to know as COVID and allergies rise –…

Have a sore throat? Congestion?

With COVID cases rising and allergy season heightening in the Chicago area, it can be challenging to know what’s what.

Here’s a breakdown of what you should know and how to tell if it’s a cold, allergies or possibly coronavirus:

Which allergens are high right now?

According to Dr. Rachna Shah, an allergist, molds and weeds have been particularly high over the last month or so.

“Molds have been the ones that have really been fluctuating and that’s really because if it’s hot and humid outside the mold counts go up,” Shah said. “But like last week, it was in the 60s and it was a little cooler. The molds dramatically went down, which was a nice break for our mold sufferers.”

The one behind many allergy sufferers symptoms right now, however, is weeds, according to Shah.

“We had a big burst at the beginning of the season, which was around beginning of August. And then it’s gradually been trending trending up, I would say,…