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If y'all've been exposed, are sick, or are caring for someone with COVID-xix

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to experience symptoms of the affliction, you may be asked to self-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what tin you exercise to prepare yourself for an extended stay at home? How soon afterwards you're infected will y'all start to be contagious? And what tin you practice to preclude others in your household from getting sick?

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Center for more than information on coronavirus and COVID-19.

Spring to: Symptoms | Testing | Antibodies | Contagiousness | Long Term Furnishings

Symptoms of COVID-19

What are the symptoms of COVID-nineteen?

Some people infected with the virus have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, common ones include fever, trunk anguish, dry out cough, fatigue, chills, headache, sore pharynx, loss of appetite, and loss of olfactory property. In some people, COVID-19 causes more than astringent symptoms like high fever, severe coughing, and shortness of breath, which ofttimes indicates pneumonia.

People with COVID-19 can also feel neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, or both. These may occur with or without respiratory symptoms.

For case, COVID-19 affects encephalon function in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-19 include loss of smell, inability to taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the easily and anxiety, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In add-on, some people have gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such as loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-xix.

What should I exercise if I recollect I or my child may take a COVID-nineteen infection?

Get-go, telephone call your doctor or pediatrician for advice.

If you do not have a md and you are concerned that you or your kid may take COVID-19, contact your local lath of health. They can direct you to the all-time place for testing and treatment in your surface area. Over-the-counter tests may also be available at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

If you do test positive and either accept no symptoms or can recover at home, you will yet demand to

• isolate at domicile for 5 days
• if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving afterward v days, you lot can discontinue isolation and leave your home
• continue to vesture a mask around others for five additional days.

If you have a fever, continue to isolate at home until you lot no longer have a fever.

If you have a high or very low torso temperature, shortness of breath, confusion, or feeling you might pass out, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Call the urgent care center or emergency department ahead of time to permit the staff know that you are coming, so they can exist prepared for your inflow.

How do I know if I accept COVID-nineteen, the flu, or just a cold?

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-xix is the ascendant strain, telling the difference is more challenging than ever. Even if y'all have been vaccinated and additional, y'all can still get symptoms, just they are probable to be mild to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the run a risk of severe symptoms that can be life-threatening is still substantial.

At the current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they have COVID. If possible, arrange to go tested or exercise a home test. If the examination is positive, you should isolate at home for v days. If y'all had a negative test when symptoms started, it'southward still best to isolate at home for ii to three more days, to monitor your symptoms and forbid spreading infection. (That'due south because in that location is a run a risk of simulated negatives with antigen tests, which means you can even so have COVID with a negative test.) Consider testing again before going out. Once you are gear up to leave home, continue to consistently wear a mask for at to the lowest degree v more days.

COVID-nineteen Testing

I recently spent fourth dimension with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. I'chiliad fully vaccinated and boosted. Do I need to get tested?

Co-ordinate to the latest CDC guidelines, if you are vaccinated and boosted, or accept gotten your initial vaccine serial inside the last six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the terminal two months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should article of clothing a mask around others for 10 days and have a COVID examination on 24-hour interval 5, if possible. If you lot develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at habitation.

If you are unvaccinated, had your terminal Pfizer or Moderna shot more than half dozen months ago and have non been additional, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than than ii months ago and have non been additional, you should stay home for five days and clothing a mask around others for an boosted 5 days. If you can't quarantine, habiliment a mask around others for ten days. Get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at any time, get tested and isolate at dwelling.

What is the difference betwixt a PCR test and an antigen test for COVID-xix?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they tin can be used to make up one's mind whether you currently have an active coronavirus infection. However, there are of import differences between these ii types of tests.

PCR tests discover the presence of the virus's genetic textile using a technique chosen reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this test, a sample may be nerveless through a nasal or throat swab, or a saliva sample may exist used. The sample is typically sent to a laboratory where coronavirus RNA (if nowadays) is extracted from the sample and converted into DNA. The Dna is then amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral Dna are made, in order to produce a measurable event. The accuracy of whatsoever diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the course of disease the testing was washed, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate weather while it was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests observe specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to equally rapid diagnostic tests because it tin can accept less than an hour to get the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, pregnant that if you exam positive you are very probable to be infected. However, there is a higher adventure of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative event cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you have a negative result on an antigen test, your dr. may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen examination to confirm the consequence.

It may be helpful to think of a COVID antigen test as you would call back of a rapid strep examination or a rapid flu test. A positive result for whatsoever of these tests is probable to be authentic, and allows diagnosis and treatment to brainstorm apace, while a negative effect oftentimes results in further testing to ostend or overturn the initial result.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the US. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, as well called rapid diagnostic tests, observe specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen exam results may come back in every bit little as 15 to 45 minutes; you may wait several days for PCR exam results.

The accuracy of any diagnostic exam depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly. For PCR tests, which are typically analyzed in a laboratory, test results may exist affected by the conditions in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may also exist affected by the timing of the test. For instance, if you are tested on the solar day you were infected, your test issue is nearly guaranteed to come back negative, because in that location are not nevertheless enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to notice. The chance of getting a false negative test result decreases if y'all are tested a few days later on you were infected, or a few days after you develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a exam outcome comes dorsum positive, information technology is almost certain that the person is infected.

A negative test result is less definite. In that location is a higher chance of simulated negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may exist even more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If you take a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR examination or recommend a second rapid antigen test to confirm the consequence.

If you experience COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR test outcome, there is no reason to repeat the test unless your symptoms get worse. If your symptoms practise worsen, call your doctor or local or state healthcare department for guidance on further testing. You should besides cocky-isolate at abode. Article of clothing a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practise concrete distancing.

What is serologic (antibody) testing for COVID-19? What can it be used for?

A serologic test is a blood test that looks for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 created past your immune organization in response to infection or vaccination.

Your body takes one to 3 weeks after y'all take acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are non sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an agile COVID-xix infection, fifty-fifty in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-nineteen

I've heard that the immune system produces different types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How exercise they differ? Why is this of import?

When a person gets or is vaccinated against a viral or bacterial infection, a healthy immune system makes antibodies against one or more components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-19 coronavirus contains ribonucleic acrid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to certain human cells. Once inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and likewise turns on the production of proteins, both of which allow the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, especially to the lungs.

While the immune organization could potentially respond to different parts of the virus, it'southward the fasten proteins that become the almost attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins equally a foreign substance and brainstorm producing antibodies in response.

There are two main categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike protein or a different protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies can be detected with claret tests starting near one week after the initial infection. If antibodies are institute, it's extremely probable that the person has been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The antibody level declines over fourth dimension subsequently an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Bounden antibodies help fight the infection, but they might not offer protection against getting reinfected in the time to come. Information technology depends on whether they are also neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The trunk makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus'south spike protein, making it more hard for the virus to adhere to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more lasting protection than binding antibodies confronting reinfection.

Monoclonal antibodies are manmade versions of neutralizing antibodies. The FDA has authorized monoclonal antibody treatments for certain groups of COVID-19 patients.

Can a person who has been infected with coronavirus become infected again?

The immune system responds to COVID-19 infection past stimulating white blood cells called lymphocytes to grade antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective issue against reinfection. But it is only temporary. In that location have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-19, recovered, so became infected again.

This has been particularly true as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. There was a rise in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increment in the reinfection rate due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more xxx mutations on the spike poly peptide, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize after previous infection. Because of this, Omicron is more capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

We have learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural immune response, fifty-fifty in those who accept been previously infected, and further reduces the take chances of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are also more than common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe illness.

The lesser line? Go vaccinated and boosted whether or not you've already had COVID-xix.

Contagiousness of COVID-xix

How shortly subsequently I'one thousand infected with the new coronavirus will I commencement to be contagious?

The fourth dimension from exposure to symptom onset (known equally the incubation period) is idea to be 2 to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared inside five days for early variants, and inside four days for the Delta variant. The incubation period appears to be even shorter – about three days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be most infectious early in the form of their infection. With Omicron, most transmission occurs during the one to 2 days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards.

Wearing masks, especially indoors, can help reduce the risk that someone who is infected but not yet experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Can people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" tin can refer to two groups of people: those who somewhen do have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never get on to have symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we take seen that people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-xix may exist contagious 48 hours before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may exist more than likely to spread the illness, because they are unlikely to exist isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

But what near people who never become on to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open up found that about i out of every iv infections may exist transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be fifty-fifty higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and boosted in one case you lot are eligible is of import for protecting not simply yourself but others as well; evidence suggests that you're less likely to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter period of time, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long later on I am infected will I continue to be contagious? At what point in my illness will I exist most contagious?

People are thought to be almost contagious early in the class of their illness. With Omicron, most manual appears to occur during the 1 to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterward. People with no symptoms can also spread the coronavirus to others.

By the tenth day after COVID symptoms begin, about people will no longer be contagious, as long as their symptoms accept continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who examination positive for the virus but never develop symptoms over the following ten days afterward testing are also probably no longer contagious.

The CDC's isolation guidelines, updated in December 2021, reflect this noesis. According to the guidelines, everyone who tests positive for COVID-nineteen should

• isolate at home for five days
• if yous take no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you tin can discontinue isolation and leave your dwelling
• keep to wearable a mask around others for five boosted days.

If yous accept a fever, continue to isolate at domicile until you no longer have a fever.

I'chiliad vaccinated but got a quantum COVID infection. Can I all the same spread the infection to others?

Yes, you can. That'southward why the CDC recommends that everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate from others for at least 5 days, regardless of their vaccination status.

How can I protect myself while caring for someone that may accept COVID-xix?

You should take many of the same precautions as you would if you lot were caring for someone with the flu:

• Stay in some other room or be separated from the person every bit much equally possible. Use a carve up bedroom and bathroom, if available.
• Make sure that shared spaces in the home have good air flow. If possible, open a window.
• Wash your hands often with lather and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based mitt sanitizer that contains lx to 95% alcohol, roofing all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry out. Use soap and h2o if your hands are visibly dirty.
• Avoid touching your eyes, olfactory organ, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• You and the person should clothing a confront mask if yous are in the aforementioned room.
• Wear a disposable face mask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the person's blood, stool, or torso fluids, such every bit saliva, sputum, nasal fungus, vomit, urine.
  • Throw out disposable face up masks and gloves after using them. Practise non reuse.
  • First remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately clean your hands with lather and water or alcohol-based manus sanitizer. Adjacent, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately clean your hands again with lather and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Do not share household items such as dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. After the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
• Make clean all "high-touch" surfaces, such equally counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every day. Too, clean whatever surfaces that may accept blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Apply a household cleaning spray or wipe.
  • Wash laundry thoroughly.
  • Immediately remove and wash apparel or bedding that accept blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
• Wear dispensable gloves while handling soiled items and continue soiled items away from your torso. Clean your hands immediately subsequently removing your gloves.
• Place all used disposable gloves, face masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste material. Clean your hands (with soap and h2o or an booze-based paw sanitizer) immediately after handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-xix does announced to spread from people to pets, according to the FDA, though this is uncommon. Research has found that cats and ferrets are more probable to become infected than dogs.

If you become ill with COVID-19, information technology'southward best to restrict contact with your pets, just like you would around other people. This means you should forgo petting, snuggling, beingness kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until yous are feeling ameliorate. When possible, take another member of your household care for your pets while yous are sick. If you lot must care for your pet while you are ill, wash your easily earlier and after you lot collaborate with your pets and article of clothing a face mask.

At present, it is considered unlikely that pets can spread the COVID-nineteen virus to humans. However, pets can spread other infections that cause illness, includingE. coli and Salmonella, and so wash your hands thoroughly with lather and h2o afterward interacting with your animal companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-19

I had COVID-19 a few months agone. Am I at increased risk for wellness problems in the time to come?

It does appear that people who recover from COVID-19 accept an increased take a chance of developing other medical conditions, at to the lowest degree in the short term.

One written report, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health plan in the U.s.a.. The researchers compared information from more than 190,000 adults, ages 18 to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020, to data from a control group that was collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for vi months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-two and recorded any new health complications.

They establish that 14% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical consequence during the post-obit six months; this was nearly 5% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a significant difference. New medical issues afflicted a range of trunk systems and included respiratory failure, aberrant heart rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney issues. Increased gamble was seen in younger, previously healthy people, but was college in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Another study, published inNature, compared the health records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five one thousand thousand other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For vi months following the first 30 days after infection, people who had had COVID-xix were significantly more than probable to die or to experience a medical or mental wellness problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide however another reason to get vaccinated and boosted if you are eligible.

Who are long-haulers? And what is mail-viral syndrome?

Long haulers are people who have not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months after first experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel improve for weeks, then relapse with old or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers feel, sometimes chosen mail service-COVID-19 syndrome or postal service-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is not unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme illness, can cause similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging inquiry may help predict who will become a long hauler. One study found that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than than 5 symptoms during their first calendar week of affliction were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse vocalism, and muscle or body aches — experienced lonely or in combination during the first week of affliction too increased the chances of condign a long hauler, equally did increasing age and higher body mass index (BMI).

Though these factors may increase the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone can become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially have mild to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and practice not require hospitalization. Previously healthy young adults, not but older adults with coexisting medical weather condition, are besides experiencing post-COVID-xix syndrome.

Symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, can vary widely. Some of the more common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, brain fog, shortness of breath, chills, body anguish, headache, joint pain, chest pain, cough, and lingering loss of gustation or smell. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or retentivity loss that affects their mean solar day-to-day power to exercise things like make decisions, have conversations, follow instructions, and drive. The common thread is that long haulers haven't returned to their pre-COVID wellness, and ongoing symptoms are negatively affecting their quality of life. A systematic review published in JAMA Network Open reported that more than half of people infected with COVID-19 continued to experience at least 1 symptom vi months after their diagnosis.

There's already some speculation, but no definite answers, about what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers doubtable that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers long-lasting changes in the immune organization. Others suggest that it triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which can bear on heart rate, claret pressure, and sweating, among other things.

Weblog posts:

• Could COVID-19 infection be responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
• What is COVID-19 brain fog — and how tin can y'all clear it?
• The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
• The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID
• Which test is best for COVID-xix?
• Allergies? Mutual common cold? Influenza? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

Yous think you've got COVID-19. Here's what you need to exercise (recorded 4/10/20)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ TV in Boston and an teacher at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when we start to experience a dry out coughing or possibly spike a fever. Who do you call? How do you protect your family? When does it make sense to motility toward an emergency department, and how should we prepare? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing'south online form series, and an urgent intendance doc at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Centre for more information on coronavirus and COVID-19.

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Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/if-youve-been-exposed-to-the-coronavirus