The authors did find a higher level of an inflammatory marker called CRP in the EBV group, but in both groups, the levels were within the normal healthy range.
No other symptoms or vital signs differed between the groups. They found that these patients were more likely to report having experienced fever, although neither group of patients had a measured elevated temperature in the hospital. Nevertheless, of those 67 people, around 55% were confirmed as having a reactivated EBV infection. It is important to note that most of the patients initially eligible for the study did not undergo an ordered EBV test, so it might be that there was something different about these 67 individuals that led to this recommended screening. In the first study, doctors at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, China, looked at 67 hospitalized people who had both confirmed COVID-19 and an EBV test that their doctor ordered.
