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If you've been exposed, are ill, or are caring for someone with COVID-19

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If yous've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to experience symptoms of the affliction, you may exist asked to self-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what can you do to ready yourself for an extended stay at home? How soon after you're infected volition you beginning to exist contagious? And what can you do to forestall others in your household from getting ill?

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

Jump 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 accept no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, common ones include fever, body ache, dry coughing, fatigue, chills, headache, sore throat, loss of ambition, and loss of smell. In some people, COVID-19 causes more astringent symptoms similar high fever, severe cough, and shortness of breath, which often indicates pneumonia.

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

For example, COVID-19 affects brain office 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 hands and feet, dizziness, defoliation, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In add-on, some people take gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such as loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-19.

What should I practice if I call back I or my child may have a COVID-19 infection?

Beginning, telephone call your doctor or pediatrician for advice.

If you exercise not have a doctor and you are concerned that you lot or your child may take COVID-nineteen, contact your local lath of wellness. They can direct yous to the best identify for testing and treatment in your expanse. Over-the-counter tests may also be bachelor at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

If you practice exam positive and either have no symptoms or tin can recover at domicile, you lot will nonetheless need to

isolate at home for five days
if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after v days, you can discontinue isolation and exit your home
continue to wear a mask effectually others for five boosted days.

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

If you have a loftier or very low body temperature, shortness of jiff, confusion, or feeling you might pass out, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Call the urgent intendance center or emergency section ahead of time to let the staff know that yous are coming, so they can be prepared for your inflow.

How do I know if I have COVID-19, the flu, or just a cold?

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-xix is the ascendant strain, telling the deviation is more challenging than ever. Even if you have been vaccinated and additional, you lot tin can nonetheless get symptoms, only they are probable to be mild to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the 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 become tested or do a home examination. If the test is positive, you should isolate at abode for 5 days. If you had a negative examination when symptoms started, it'southward still best to isolate at abode for ii to iii more days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That'southward considering at that place is a chance of simulated negatives with antigen tests, which means you can still accept COVID with a negative exam.) Consider testing again before going out. One time you are set to leave dwelling, keep to consistently wear a mask for at least five more days.

COVID-19 Testing

I recently spent time with someone who tested positive for COVID-nineteen. I'm fully vaccinated and additional. Exercise I need to get tested?

According to the latest CDC guidelines, if you are vaccinated and boosted, or have gotten your initial vaccine series within the last six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the concluding two months (for Johnson & Johnson), you lot should wear a mask effectually others for ten days and take a COVID test on day 5, if possible. If yous develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at domicile.

If you lot are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than than six months ago and have not been additional, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than than two months ago and have not been boosted, you should stay home for five days and vesture a mask around others for an additional five days. If you can't quarantine, clothing a mask around others for x days. Go tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at any time, get tested and isolate at home.

What is the difference between a PCR test and an antigen test for COVID-19?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they can be used to determine whether you currently take an active coronavirus infection. However, in that location are important differences between these ii types of tests.

PCR tests observe the presence of the virus's genetic cloth using a technique called opposite transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this test, a sample may be nerveless through a nasal or pharynx swab, or a saliva sample may be used. The sample is typically sent to a laboratory where coronavirus RNA (if present) is extracted from the sample and converted into Deoxyribonucleic acid. The Deoxyribonucleic acid is then amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral Deoxyribonucleic acid are made, in order to produce a measurable result. The accurateness of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the course of illness the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate atmospheric condition while information technology was shipped to the laboratory. Mostly speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests observe specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to every bit rapid diagnostic tests because it can take less than an hour to go the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, meaning that if y'all examination positive you are very likely to be infected. However, there is a higher chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative effect cannot definitively rule out an agile infection. If you have a negative result on an antigen examination, your doctor may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen examination to confirm the result.

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

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently bachelor in the U.s.. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, also called rapid diagnostic tests, detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen test results may come dorsum in as little as 15 to 45 minutes; y'all may wait several days for PCR exam results.

The accurateness of whatever diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly. For PCR tests, which are typically analyzed in a laboratory, test results may exist affected by the weather in which the examination was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may likewise be afflicted by the timing of the examination. For example, if you are tested on the twenty-four hour period y'all were infected, your test result is nearly guaranteed to come up back negative, considering at that place are non yet enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to detect. The chance of getting a false negative test result decreases if you are tested a few days later on you were infected, or a few days afterwards you develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a exam consequence comes back positive, it is almost sure that the person is infected.

A negative test result is less definite. There is a higher risk of faux negatives with antigen tests, and early on information suggests that antigen tests may exist even more probable to miss the Omicron variant. If you have a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may society a PCR test or recommend a 2d rapid antigen test to confirm the result.

If yous feel COVID-similar symptoms and become a negative PCR test result, there is no reason to repeat the test unless your symptoms get worse. If your symptoms do worsen, telephone call your doctor or local or country healthcare department for guidance on further testing. You should likewise cocky-isolate at home. Vesture a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice concrete distancing.

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

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

Your body takes ane to three weeks after you have acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are not sensitive plenty to accurately diagnose an active COVID-xix infection, fifty-fifty in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-19

I've heard that the immune system produces unlike types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-xix coronavirus. How practice they differ? Why is this important?

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 acid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that tin can latch on to certain human cells. In one case within the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and besides turns on the product of proteins, both of which permit the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the trunk, especially to the lungs.

While the immune system could potentially respond to dissimilar parts of the virus, it's the spike proteins that get the nearly attention. Allowed cells recognize the spike proteins as a foreign substance and brainstorm producing antibodies in response.

There are ii main categories of antibodies:

Bounden antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike protein or a different protein known as the nucleocapsid poly peptide. Binding antibodies tin exist detected with blood tests starting about one week subsequently the initial infection. If antibodies are found, it's extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The antibody level declines over fourth dimension later on an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Bounden antibodies help fight the infection, but they might not offer protection against getting reinfected in the hereafter. It depends on whether they are also neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The trunk makes neutralizing antibodies that assail the coronavirus'south spike protein, making it more difficult for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more lasting protection than bounden antibodies against reinfection.

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

Can a person who has been infected with coronavirus get infected over again?

The immune system responds to COVID-19 infection by stimulating white blood cells chosen lymphocytes to class antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective effect confronting reinfection. Simply it is only temporary. There have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got ill with COVID-nineteen, recovered, and so became infected again.

This has been especially true as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. There was a ascent in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increase in the reinfection charge per unit due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has almost 50 mutations, including more 30 mutations on the spike poly peptide, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize later on 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 allowed response, even in those who have been previously infected, and further reduces the chance of reinfection. Although quantum infections subsequently vaccination are too more than mutual with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe illness.

The bottom line? Get vaccinated and boosted whether or not you lot've already had COVID-19.

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How soon after I'chiliad infected with the new coronavirus will I first to exist contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known equally the incubation period) is idea to be ii to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared within 5 days for early on variants, and within four days for the Delta variant. The incubation period appears to be even shorter – near three days – for the Omicron variant.

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

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, tin can assistance reduce the hazard 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" can refer to two groups of people: those who eventually do have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on to accept symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we have seen that people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-19 may be contagious 48 hours earlier starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more likely to spread the illness, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

Only what almost people who never keep to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open up found that most one out of every four infections may be transmitted past individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be fifty-fifty higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and boosted once you are eligible is important for protecting non simply yourself but others as well; evidence suggests that y'all're less likely to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter period of fourth dimension, once y'all've been vaccinated.

For how long after I am infected will I continue to be contagious? At what betoken in my illness will I be most contagious?

People are thought to be almost contagious early in the course of their disease. With Omicron, virtually manual appears to occur during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards. People with no symptoms tin also spread the coronavirus to others.

By the tenth day after COVID symptoms begin, most people will no longer exist contagious, equally long as their symptoms take continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus but never develop symptoms over the following 10 days after testing are as well probably no longer contagious.

The CDC's isolation guidelines, updated in Dec 2021, reflect this noesis. According to the guidelines, anybody who tests positive for COVID-19 should

isolate at dwelling house for five days
if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving later on five days, you can discontinue isolation and get out your home
continue to wear a mask around others for 5 additional days.

If y'all have a fever, keep to isolate at home until you no longer have a fever.

I'm vaccinated but got a breakthrough COVID infection. Can I notwithstanding spread the infection to others?

Yeah, yous can. That'due south why the CDC recommends that everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate from others for at least five days, regardless of their vaccination status.

How tin can I protect myself while caring for someone that may have COVID-19?

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

Stay in some other room or be separated from the person equally much as possible. Employ a separate sleeping accommodation and bathroom, if bachelor.
Make sure that shared spaces in the home have skillful air menses. If possible, open a window.
Wash your hands often with soap and h2o for at to the lowest degree xx seconds or utilize an booze-based mitt sanitizer that contains threescore to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they experience dry. Use soap and h2o if your hands are visibly dirty.
Avert touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
You and the person should wearable a face mask if you are in the same room.
Wear a disposable face mask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the person'southward blood, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal fungus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out disposable face masks and gloves after using them. Do not reuse.
- Commencement remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately make clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately make clean your hands again with soap and h2o or alcohol-based manus sanitizer.
Do non share household items such equally dishes, drinking spectacles, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. After the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
Clean all "high-affect" surfaces, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every day. Also, clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe.
- Wash laundry thoroughly.
- Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that have blood, stool, or torso fluids on them.
Wear disposable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items away from your body. Clean your hands immediately after 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. Clean your easily (with soap and water or an alcohol-based manus sanitizer) immediately afterward handling these items.

Tin can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

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

If you become sick with COVID-19, it'south all-time 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 you are feeling amend. When possible, have some other member of your household care for your pets while y'all are sick. If you must care for your pet while y'all are sick, launder your hands before and later you collaborate with your pets and article of clothing a confront mask.

At nowadays, it is considered unlikely that pets tin can spread the COVID-19 virus to humans. However, pets tin can spread other infections that cause affliction, includingDue east. coli and Salmonella, and so wash your hands thoroughly with lather and water later on interacting with your animal companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-19

I had COVID-19 a few months ago. Am I at increased risk for health problems in the futurity?

It does appear that people who recover from COVID-19 have an increased risk of developing other medical atmospheric condition, at least in the curt term.

One study, 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 than 190,000 adults, ages xviii to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-two virus in 2020, to data from a control grouping that was collected in 2019, earlier the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded any new wellness complications.

They found that xiv% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical issue during the following half-dozen months; this was near v% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a significant difference. New medical bug affected a range of body systems and included respiratory failure, aberrant center rhythms, diabetes, neurological bug, and liver and kidney problems. Increased risk was seen in younger, previously healthy people, only was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical bug.

Another written report, published inNature, compared the health records of more than than 73,000 users of the Veteran's Wellness Assistants (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five meg other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-nineteen and were never hospitalized. For half dozen months following the first 30 days later on infection, people who had had COVID-nineteen were significantly more likely to die or to experience a medical or mental health problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide yet another reason to go vaccinated and additional if you are eligible.

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

Long haulers are people who have not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months after beginning experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel better for weeks, so relapse with old or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers feel, sometimes chosen post-COVID-nineteen syndrome or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is non unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme disease, tin cause similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging enquiry may help predict who will get a long hauler. One written report found that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than than five symptoms during their offset week of affliction were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty animate, a hoarse voice, and muscle or body aches — experienced alone or in combination during the first week of illness also increased the chances of becoming a long hauler, as did increasing historic period 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 practise not require hospitalization. Previously healthy immature adults, not only older adults with circumstantial medical conditions, are also experiencing post-COVID-19 syndrome.

Symptoms of postal service-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, tin can vary widely. Some of the more than common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, brain fog, shortness of breath, chills, torso ache, headache, joint pain, chest pain, cough, and lingering loss of taste or odour. Many long haulers study cerebral dysfunction or retentivity loss that affects their day-to-day ability to do things similar brand 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 connected to experience at least i symptom six months after their diagnosis.

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

Blog posts:

Could COVID-xix infection exist responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
What is COVID-19 brain fog — and how can you clear it?
The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
The subconscious long-term cognitive effects of COVID
Which test is best for COVID-nineteen?
Allergies? Mutual cold? Flu? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

You lot retrieve you've got COVID-19. Hither's what you need to practise (recorded 4/10/20)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ Television in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how nosotros should react when we start to feel a dry cough or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you call? How practice you protect your family unit? When does information technology make sense to motion toward an emergency department, and how should we prepare? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing'due south online course serial, and an urgent care physician 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