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

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If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to feel symptoms of the disease, you lot may be asked to self-quarantine or cocky-isolate. What does that entail, and what tin can you do to set yourself for an extended stay at domicile? How soon afterward yous're infected will you lot first to exist contagious? And what can you lot do to prevent others in your household from getting sick?

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

Jump to: Symptoms | Testing | Antibodies | Contagiousness | Long Term Effects

Symptoms of COVID-19

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

Some people infected with the virus have 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 smell. In some people, COVID-19 causes more astringent symptoms similar loftier fever, severe coughing, and shortness of breath, which often indicates pneumonia.

People with COVID-nineteen tin can as well experience neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, or both. These may occur with or without respiratory symptoms.

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

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

What should I do if I think I or my kid may have a COVID-19 infection?

First, call your doctor or pediatrician for communication.

If you do not have a doctor and you are concerned that you or your child may have COVID-nineteen, contact your local lath of health. They tin can directly you to the best place for testing and treatment in your area. Over-the-counter tests may likewise be available at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

If you do test positive and either have no symptoms or tin recover at home, you volition nevertheless need to

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

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

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

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

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the ascendant strain, telling the deviation is more challenging than ever. Even if you have been vaccinated and boosted, you lot tin still get symptoms, only 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 still substantial.

At the current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they have COVID. If possible, adapt to get tested or do a home examination. If the test is positive, you should isolate at home for five days. If you had a negative exam when symptoms started, it's still best to isolate at home for two to iii more than days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That's considering there is a adventure of false negatives with antigen tests, which means you can nevertheless have COVID with a negative test.) Consider testing over again before going out. Once yous are set to leave habitation, continue to consistently wear a mask for at least five more than days.

COVID-19 Testing

I recently spent time with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. I'grand fully vaccinated and boosted. Do I need to go tested?

Co-ordinate to the latest CDC guidelines, if you are vaccinated and boosted, or have gotten your initial vaccine series within the last half dozen months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the final two months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should wear a mask around others for 10 days and take a COVID exam on twenty-four hour period 5, if possible. If yous develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at dwelling house.

If you are unvaccinated, had your concluding Pfizer or Moderna shot more than six months ago and have non been boosted, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than than two months ago and have not been boosted, yous should stay habitation for v days and wearable a mask around others for an additional five days. If you can't quarantine, wearable a mask around others for 10 days. Go tested for COVID on solar day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at any time, get tested and isolate at home.

What is the deviation between a PCR examination and an antigen exam for COVID-19?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they can exist used to determine whether you currently have an active coronavirus infection. However, there are of import differences betwixt these two types of tests.

PCR tests observe the presence of the virus's genetic textile using a technique called reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this examination, a sample may be collected 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 DNA. The DNA is so amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral Deoxyribonucleic acid are made, in order to produce a measurable outcome. The accurateness of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly, when during the form of illness the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in advisable weather while it was shipped to the laboratory. More often than not speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to every bit rapid diagnostic tests because information technology can take less than an hour to get the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, significant that if you examination positive you are very likely to be infected. Yet, there is a college chance of faux negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative event cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you take a negative result on an antigen examination, your medico may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen test to confirm the event.

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

How reliable are the tests for COVID-xix?

Ii types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the Us. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, besides called rapid diagnostic tests, find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen test results may come back in as niggling as 15 to 45 minutes; you may wait several days for PCR test results.

The accuracy 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, exam results may be affected by the atmospheric condition in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may likewise exist affected by the timing of the test. For example, if you are tested on the day you were infected, your test outcome is near guaranteed to come back negative, because there are not notwithstanding plenty viral particles in your nose or saliva to detect. The adventure of getting a false negative test consequence decreases if you are tested a few days afterwards y'all were infected, or a few days after you lot develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a test event comes back positive, it is well-nigh certain that the person is infected.

A negative exam upshot is less definite. In that location is a higher chance of false negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may be even more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If yous have a negative outcome on an antigen exam, your doctor may order a PCR examination or recommend a second rapid antigen test to confirm the event.

If yous feel COVID-like 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, phone call your doc or local or country healthcare section for guidance on farther testing. You should as well cocky-isolate at home. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

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

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

Your torso takes one to three weeks after you take 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, fifty-fifty in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-19

I've heard that the immune organisation produces different 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 allowed organisation makes antibodies confronting 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 fasten proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to certain man cells. In one case inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and also turns on the production of proteins, both of which allow the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, particularly to the lungs.

While the immune arrangement could potentially respond to dissimilar parts of the virus, it's the spike proteins that get the well-nigh attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins equally a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

There are ii primary categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the fasten protein or a different protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies can be detected with blood tests starting nigh one week after the initial infection. If antibodies are found, information technology's extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-nineteen coronavirus. The antibody level declines over time later an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Bounden antibodies help fight the infection, only they might not offer protection against getting reinfected in the future. It depends on whether they are besides neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that assault the coronavirus'due south spike protein, making it more hard 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 antibody treatments for certain groups of COVID-xix patients.

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

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

This has been especially true equally 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 almost l mutations, including more than than thirty mutations on the spike protein, 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, even in those who have been previously infected, and further reduces the risk of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections later vaccination are also more than common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe affliction.

The bottom line? Get vaccinated and boosted whether or non you've already had COVID-19.

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How soon after I'g infected with the new coronavirus will I outset to be contagious?

The fourth dimension from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation period) is thought to exist two to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared within 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 on in the course of their infection. With Omicron, most manual occurs during the 1 to ii days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days later on.

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, can help reduce the risk that someone who is infected only not nonetheless experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Tin can people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" can refer to two groups of people: those who eventually do take symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never keep to have 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 before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may exist more probable to spread the affliction, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may non prefer behaviors designed to forestall spread.

But what near people who never keep to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open found that almost 1 out of every four infections may be 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 once yous are eligible is important for protecting not just yourself but others as well; evidence suggests that y'all're less likely to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter menses of time, in one case you've been vaccinated.

For how long later I am infected will I proceed to be contagious? At what bespeak in my disease will I be near contagious?

People are thought to be most contagious early in the form of their affliction. With Omicron, most manual appears to occur during the ane to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards. People with no symptoms can also spread the coronavirus to others.

Past the 10th mean solar day later on COVID symptoms brainstorm, most people will no longer be contagious, equally long every bit their symptoms accept continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus only never develop symptoms over the post-obit 10 days afterward testing are also probably no longer contagious.

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

isolate at home for five days
if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after v days, you can discontinue isolation and leave your habitation
continue to article of clothing a mask around others for five additional days.

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

I'm vaccinated but got a quantum COVID infection. Can I nevertheless 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 have COVID-19?

Y'all should take many of the same precautions equally yous would if you were caring for someone with the influenza:

Stay in another room or be separated from the person as much every bit possible. Utilise a separate bedroom and bathroom, if available.
Make certain that shared spaces in the abode have good air flow. If possible, open a window.
Wash your easily frequently with lather and h2o for at least xx seconds or utilize an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains threescore to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Employ lather and water if your hands are visibly dirty.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and oral fissure with unwashed easily.
You and the person should vesture a face up mask if you are in the same room.
Wear a disposable confront mask and gloves when yous touch or have contact with the person'south blood, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out disposable face masks and gloves afterward using them. Do not reuse.
- First remove and throw away gloves. And so, immediately clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately clean your hands once again with soap and h2o or alcohol-based hand 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. After the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
Clean all "high-touch" surfaces, such equally counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every twenty-four hours. Likewise, make clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Employ a household cleaning spray or wipe.
- Wash laundry thoroughly.
- Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that take blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
Wear disposable gloves while handling soiled items and go along soiled items away from your body. Clean your hands immediately after removing your gloves.
Place all used disposable gloves, face up masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste. Clean your hands (with lather and water or an alcohol-based manus sanitizer) immediately afterwards handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-xix virus?

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

If you become sick with COVID-nineteen, it'south best to restrict contact with your pets, just like you would around other people. This ways you lot should forgo petting, snuggling, beingness kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until y'all are feeling better. When possible, accept another member of your household care for your pets while you are sick. If you must treat your pet while y'all are sick, wash your easily before and afterwards you collaborate with your pets and habiliment a face mask.

At present, information technology is considered unlikely that pets tin can spread the COVID-xix virus to humans. However, pets can spread other infections that cause illness, includingE. coli and Salmonella, and then wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water subsequently 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 future?

It does appear that people who recover from COVID-19 have an increased run a risk of developing other medical conditions, at least in the short term.

I study, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory examination and hospital admissions data from a wellness plan in the Us. The researchers compared data 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 nerveless in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for half-dozen months subsequently they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded any new health complications.

They found that 14% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical issue during the following six months; this was almost 5% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a significant difference. New medical bug affected a range of body systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal centre rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney issues. Increased gamble was seen in younger, previously salubrious people, just 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'south Wellness Assistants (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 only were never hospitalized, to those of almost five one thousand thousand other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-xix and were never hospitalized. For six months following the get-go 30 days subsequently infection, people who had had COVID-xix were significantly more likely to dice or to experience a medical or mental health trouble that they had never had before.

These studies provide notwithstanding some other reason to become vaccinated and boosted if yous 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 start experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel better for weeks, and so relapse with onetime or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes called post-COVID-19 syndrome or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is non unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme disease, can crusade similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may help predict who volition become a long hauler. 1 report found that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than 5 symptoms during their commencement week of illness were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse voice, and muscle or body aches — experienced lone or in combination during the first week of illness also increased the chances of condign a long hauler, as did increasing age and higher body mass index (BMI).

Though these factors may increase the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone tin become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially have balmy to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and exercise not crave hospitalization. Previously healthy young adults, non just older adults with coexisting medical conditions, are also experiencing post-COVID-19 syndrome.

Symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, can vary widely. Some of the more than common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after concrete or mental activeness, brain fog, shortness of breath, chills, trunk ache, headache, joint pain, chest pain, cough, and lingering loss of sense of taste or smell. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or retention loss that affects their day-to-day ability to practice things similar make decisions, take conversations, follow instructions, and bulldoze. The common thread is that long haulers haven'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 up reported that more than than half of people infected with COVID-xix continued to feel at least 1 symptom six months after their diagnosis.

There'south already some speculation, only no definite answers, about what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers suspect that SARS-CoV-two infection triggers long-lasting changes in the immune system. Others propose that it triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which tin bear upon heart rate, blood force per unit area, and sweating, among other things.

Web log posts:

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

Podcast:

Y'all call up y'all've got COVID-19. Here's what y'all demand to practise (recorded 4/x/20)

Nosotros asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ Boob tube in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when nosotros commencement to experience a dry coughing or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you lot call? How do you lot protect your family? When does it make sense to move toward an emergency department, and how should we prepare? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Wellness Publishing'due south online course serial, and an urgent care physician at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Centre for more than data on coronavirus and COVID-xix.

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