You Were Sick

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

If you lot've been exposed to someone with COVID-xix or brainstorm to experience symptoms of the illness, you may be asked to cocky-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what can you do to prepare yourself for an extended stay at home? How shortly afterward you're infected will you get-go to exist contagious? And what tin you practice to foreclose others in your household from getting sick?

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

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

Symptoms of COVID-19

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

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

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

For example, COVID-19 affects brain function in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-19 include loss of aroma, inability to taste, musculus weakness, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, dizziness, defoliation, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In addition, some people have gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such equally loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-19.

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

First, call your md or pediatrician for communication.

If you exercise not accept a doctor and y'all are concerned that yous or your child may have COVID-19, contact your local lath of health. They tin straight you to the best place for testing and treatment in your area. Over-the-counter tests may also be available at your local chemist's shop or grocery store.

If you do test positive and either have no symptoms or tin can recover at home, you lot will all the same need to

• isolate at dwelling for five days
• if y'all have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, y'all can discontinue isolation and leave your habitation
• proceed to clothing a mask effectually others for v additional days.

If you have a fever, keep to isolate at domicile until you no longer have a fever.

If you have a high or very depression body temperature, shortness of breath, defoliation, or feeling yous might pass out, y'all need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Telephone call the urgent care center or emergency department ahead of time to let the staff know that y'all are coming, and so they can exist prepared for your arrival.

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

At present that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain, telling the difference is more challenging than ever. Fifty-fifty if you have been vaccinated and additional, you can still get symptoms, simply they are likely to be mild to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the risk of severe symptoms that can be life-threatening is however substantial.

At the current fourth dimension, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they have COVID. If possible, arrange to get tested or do a habitation test. If the exam is positive, yous should isolate at habitation for five days. If you had a negative test when symptoms started, it's still best to isolate at abode for two to three more than days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That'due south considering there is a chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means you tin can nevertheless take COVID with a negative exam.) Consider testing again before going out. In one case you are ready to leave home, continue to consistently wearable a mask for at least five more than days.

COVID-19 Testing

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

According to the latest CDC guidelines, if you are vaccinated and additional, or accept gotten your initial vaccine series within the final six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the final 2 months (for Johnson & Johnson), y'all should wearable a mask effectually others for ten days and have a COVID examination on day five, if possible. If you develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at home.

If you are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than half dozen months ago and take non been boosted, or had your Johnson & Johnson testify more than two months ago and have not been boosted, you should stay dwelling house for five days and wear a mask around others for an boosted v days. If you tin't quarantine, wear a mask effectually others for 10 days. Get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If y'all develop symptoms at any time, get tested and isolate at home.

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

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they tin can be used to determine whether you currently have an active coronavirus infection. Even so, 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 chosen reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this examination, a sample may be nerveless through a nasal or throat 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 DNA is then amplified, pregnant that many copies of the viral Deoxyribonucleic acid are made, in lodge to produce a measurable consequence. The accuracy of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the course of disease the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate weather while it was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly authentic.

Antigen tests find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to equally rapid diagnostic tests considering it can take less than an hr to go the test results. Positive antigen examination results are highly specific, meaning that if you test positive you are very probable to be infected. Withal, there is a higher adventure of fake negatives with antigen tests, which ways that a negative result cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If yous take a negative issue on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen test to ostend the result.

It may be helpful to think of a COVID antigen test as you would think of a rapid strep exam or a rapid influenza test. A positive result for any of these tests is likely to be authentic, and allows diagnosis and treatment to begin rapidly, while a negative consequence often results in further testing to confirm or overturn the initial result.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the United states. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, also called rapid diagnostic tests, find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen exam results may come back in equally little as 15 to 45 minutes; you lot may await several days for PCR test results.

The accurateness of any diagnostic exam depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly. For PCR tests, which are typically analyzed in a laboratory, test results may be affected past the conditions in which the examination was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may also exist affected past the timing of the test. For example, if you are tested on the mean solar day you were infected, your test result is almost guaranteed to come back negative, because in that location are not however enough viral particles in your olfactory organ or saliva to discover. The chance of getting a false negative test result decreases if you are tested a few days afterwards y'all were infected, or a few days afterwards you develop symptoms.

By and large speaking, if a test outcome comes dorsum positive, information technology is nearly certain that the person is infected.

A negative test upshot is less definite. There is a higher adventure of false negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may be fifty-fifty more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If you accept a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR examination or recommend a second rapid antigen test to ostend the upshot.

If you lot feel COVID-like symptoms and go a negative PCR test result, in that location is no reason to echo the exam unless your symptoms get worse. If your symptoms do worsen, phone call your dr. or local or state healthcare section for guidance on further testing. You should likewise cocky-isolate at home. Habiliment a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

What is serologic (antibody) testing for COVID-19? What tin it exist used for?

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

Your body takes i to three weeks after yous have acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are not sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an active COVID-nineteen infection, even in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-19

I've heard that the allowed organisation produces dissimilar types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How do 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 than components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-nineteen coronavirus contains ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to certain human cells. In one case inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and besides 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 system could potentially respond to dissimilar parts of the virus, it'southward the spike proteins that get the most attending. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins as a strange substance and brainstorm producing antibodies in response.

At that place are two primary categories of antibodies:

Bounden antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike protein or a dissimilar protein known every bit the nucleocapsid poly peptide. Binding antibodies tin be detected with claret tests starting most i calendar week afterwards the initial infection. If antibodies are institute, it's extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The antibody level declines over time afterward 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. It depends on whether they are as well neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus's spike protein, making it more difficult for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more lasting protection than binding antibodies against reinfection.

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

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

The immune system responds to COVID-xix infection by stimulating white claret cells called lymphocytes to form antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective effect 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, and and so became infected again.

This has been especially true as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. There was a rise in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increase in the reinfection rate due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has about fifty mutations, including more than than 30 mutations on the spike protein, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize after previous infection. Considering of this, Omicron is more than 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, even in those who have been previously infected, and further reduces the risk of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are also more common 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 shortly afterward I'g infected with the new coronavirus will I start to be contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation menstruation) is thought to exist two to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared inside five days for early on variants, and within four days for the Delta variant. The incubation period appears to exist even shorter – virtually three days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be most infectious early in the course of their infection. With Omicron, most manual occurs during the 1 to two days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards.

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, tin help reduce the risk that someone who is infected simply not yet experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Can people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" tin refer to ii groups of people: those who eventually do have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never continue to have symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, nosotros have seen that people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-19 may exist contagious 48 hours before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may exist more likely to spread the illness, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may non adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

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

Getting vaccinated and additional in one case you are eligible is important for protecting not simply yourself simply others besides; evidence suggests that y'all're less likely to infect others, or may exist contagious for a shorter flow of time, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long afterwards I am infected volition I continue to be contagious? At what signal in my illness will I exist most contagious?

People are idea to exist most contagious early in the course of their illness. With Omicron, most transmission appears to occur during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days subsequently. People with no symptoms tin can also spread the coronavirus to others.

By the 10th day subsequently COVID symptoms brainstorm, most people will no longer exist contagious, as long as their symptoms accept continued to amend and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus merely never develop symptoms over the following 10 days later testing are also probably no longer contagious.

The CDC's isolation guidelines, updated in December 2021, reverberate this knowledge. Co-ordinate to the guidelines, everyone who tests positive for COVID-xix should

• isolate at home for five days
• if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you can discontinue isolation and go out your home
• proceed to vesture a mask effectually others for five boosted days.

If you accept a fever, continue to isolate at habitation until y'all no longer take a fever.

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

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

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

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

• Stay in another room or be separated from the person every bit much equally possible. Use a carve up bedroom and bathroom, if bachelor.
• Make sure that shared spaces in the domicile have good air flow. If possible, open up a window.
• Wash your hands oft with lather and water for at to the lowest degree 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they experience dry. Use soap and water if your hands are visibly muddied.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and rima oris with unwashed hands.
• You lot and the person should vesture a face mask if you are in the aforementioned room.
• Wear a dispensable face mask and gloves when you touch on or accept contact with the person's claret, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal fungus, vomit, urine.
  • Throw out disposable face masks and gloves after using them. Practice not reuse.
  • Starting time remove and throw away gloves. So, immediately make clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Adjacent, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately clean your hands once again with soap and h2o or booze-based mitt sanitizer.
• Do not share household items such as dishes, drinking spectacles, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. Afterwards the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
• Clean all "loftier-touch" surfaces, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every mean solar day. Too, clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or torso fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe.
  • Launder laundry thoroughly.
  • Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that accept claret, stool, or body fluids on them.
• Wearable 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. Make clean your hands (with soap and water or an alcohol-based manus sanitizer) immediately later on handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-19 does appear to spread from people to pets, co-ordinate to the FDA, though this is uncommon. Research has found that cats and ferrets are more likely to become infected than dogs.

If y'all become sick with COVID-19, it's best to restrict contact with your pets, merely like you would around other people. This means y'all should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing nutrient or bedding with your pet until you are feeling improve. When possible, accept some other member of your household care for your pets while you are sick. If y'all must care for your pet while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you lot interact with your pets and wear a face mask.

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

Long Term Furnishings of COVID-nineteen

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

Information technology does appear that people who recover from COVID-19 have an increased chance of developing other medical atmospheric condition, at least in the short term.

One report, published inThe BMJ, nerveless laboratory test and infirmary admissions data from a wellness programme in the United states. The researchers compared data from more than than 190,000 adults, ages xviii to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-two virus in 2020, to information from a command group that was collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded any new health complications.

They plant that 14% of people who had had COVID-nineteen developed a new medical issue during the following six months; this was nearly five% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a significant divergence. New medical issues affected a range of trunk systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal heart rhythms, diabetes, neurological bug, and liver and kidney problems. Increased run a risk was seen in younger, previously healthy people, only was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Another study, published inNature, compared the wellness records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran'due south Wellness Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 just were never hospitalized, to those of nigh five 1000000 other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For six months following the first 30 days after infection, people who had had COVID-nineteen were significantly more probable to die or to experience a medical or mental health problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide all the same another reason to go vaccinated and additional if y'all are eligible.

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

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

Emerging research may assist predict who volition get a long hauler. One report plant that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than 5 symptoms during their kickoff week of illness were significantly more likely to get long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse voice, and muscle or torso aches — experienced solitary or in combination during the first calendar week of disease also increased the chances of becoming a long hauler, as did increasing age and college 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 balmy to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and do non require hospitalization. Previously good for you young adults, not just older adults with coexisting medical atmospheric condition, are also experiencing post-COVID-xix syndrome.

Symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, tin vary widely. Some of the more common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms later physical or mental action, brain fog, shortness of jiff, chills, body ache, headache, joint pain, breast pain, coughing, and lingering loss of taste or aroma. Many long haulers written report cognitive dysfunction or memory loss that affects their 24-hour interval-to-day power to do things like brand decisions, accept conversations, follow instructions, and drive. The common thread is that long haulers oasis't returned to their pre-COVID health, 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 to the lowest degree 1 symptom vi months afterwards their diagnosis.

There'southward 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 allowed system. Others propose that it triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which can impact eye rate, blood pressure level, and sweating, amongst other things.

Weblog posts:

• Brain fog: Memory and attention after COVID-19
• Could COVID-nineteen infection be responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
• What is COVID-xix encephalon fog — and how can y'all clear it?
• The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
• The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID
• Which exam is best for COVID-19?
• Allergies? Common common cold? Influenza? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

You think you lot've got COVID-19. Here'due south what you need to do (recorded 4/10/twenty)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ Goggle box in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when we start to experience a dry cough or peradventure spike a fever. Who practise you lot telephone call? How do yous protect your family? When does it brand sense to move toward an emergency department, and how should nosotros gear up? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing's online course series, and an urgent care doc at Mass General Hospital.

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

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

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