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

Woman taking care of sick relative

If y'all've been exposed to someone with COVID-xix or begin to experience symptoms of the disease, you lot may be asked to self-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what can you practise to prepare yourself for an extended stay at home? How soon afterward you're infected will you outset to be contagious? And what tin can you do to prevent others in your household from getting ill?

Visit our Coronavirus Resources Center for more data on coronavirus and COVID-nineteen.

Bound 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 accept no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, common ones include fever, body anguish, dry coughing, fatigue, chills, headache, sore throat, loss of appetite, and loss of aroma. In some people, COVID-nineteen causes more astringent symptoms like high fever, severe cough, and shortness of jiff, which often indicates pneumonia.

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

For instance, COVID-xix affects brain function in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-19 include loss of smell, 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 as loss of ambition, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal hurting or discomfort associated with COVID-nineteen.

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

First, call your physician or pediatrician for advice.

If y'all exercise not have a md and y'all are concerned that you or your child may take COVID-19, contact your local lath of health. They can directly you to the best place for testing and treatment in your area. Over-the-counter tests may also exist available at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

If y'all do test positive and either have no symptoms or tin can recover at home, you volition nonetheless need to

isolate at home for five days
if you lot have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you tin discontinue isolation and leave your home
continue to wearable a mask around others for five additional days.

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

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

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

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain, telling the difference is more challenging than e'er. Even if you have been vaccinated and boosted, y'all tin can still get symptoms, simply 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 fourth dimension, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they have COVID. If possible, arrange to become tested or practice a habitation exam. If the exam is positive, y'all should isolate at home for five days. If you lot had a negative test when symptoms started, it'southward nevertheless best to isolate at home for two to three more than days, to monitor your symptoms and forbid spreading infection. (That's because in that location is a chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means y'all can still have COVID with a negative test.) Consider testing again before going out. Once y'all are gear up to leave domicile, continue to consistently wear a mask for at least five more days.

COVID-nineteen Testing

I recently spent time with someone who tested positive for COVID-xix. I'one thousand fully vaccinated and additional. Do I demand to become tested?

According to the latest CDC guidelines, if you lot are vaccinated and boosted, or have gotten your initial vaccine series within the final six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the terminal ii months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should wear a mask around others for 10 days and take a COVID test on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms, go tested sooner and isolate at home.

If you are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than six months agone and have not been additional, or had your Johnson & Johnson bear witness more than two months ago and accept non been boosted, you should stay home for five days and wear a mask around others for an additional v days. If you tin't quarantine, wear a mask effectually others for x days. Go tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at whatsoever time, get tested and isolate at home.

What is the deviation 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 decide whether you currently have an active coronavirus infection. Notwithstanding, there are important differences between these two types of tests.

PCR tests detect the presence of the virus's genetic material using a technique chosen reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this test, 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 Deoxyribonucleic acid. The DNA is then amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral Deoxyribonucleic acid are made, in order to produce a measurable outcome. The accuracy of any diagnostic examination depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly, when during the class of illness the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate conditions while it was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to as rapid diagnostic tests because it can accept less than an hr to get the exam results. Positive antigen examination results are highly specific, meaning that if you test positive you are very likely to be infected. Withal, there is a higher chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative effect cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you have a negative issue on an antigen examination, your doctor may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen test to ostend the consequence.

Information technology may be helpful to call up of a COVID antigen test equally you would think of a rapid strep test or a rapid flu test. A positive result for any of these tests is likely to exist authentic, and allows diagnosis and treatment to begin rapidly, while a negative result often results in further testing to confirm or overturn the initial outcome.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-xix?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the US. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, likewise called rapid diagnostic tests, detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen exam results may come back in equally trivial every bit 15 to 45 minutes; you lot may look several days for PCR test results.

The accuracy 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 past the atmospheric condition in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may as well be affected by the timing of the test. For example, if yous are tested on the mean solar day you were infected, your exam upshot is most guaranteed to come back negative, because there are non yet enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to detect. The chance of getting a imitation negative test result decreases if you are tested a few days after you were infected, or a few days after you develop symptoms.

By and large speaking, if a examination result comes dorsum positive, it is virtually certain that the person is infected.

A negative test consequence 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 have a negative issue on an antigen test, your doctor may social club a PCR test or recommend a 2nd rapid antigen test to ostend the result.

If y'all experience COVID-like symptoms and become a negative PCR test result, there is no reason to echo the test unless your symptoms become worse. If your symptoms do worsen, phone call your doctor or local or state healthcare department for guidance on further testing. You should as well self-isolate at home. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

What is serologic (antibiotic) testing for COVID-19? What can it exist used for?

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

Your body takes ane to three weeks after you take acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are not sensitive plenty to accurately diagnose an active COVID-19 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-19 coronavirus. How practise they differ? Why is this important?

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

The COVID-xix coronavirus contains ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to sure human cells. In one case inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and also turns on the production of proteins, both of which permit the virus to infect more than cells and spread throughout the body, particularly to the lungs.

While the immune system could potentially respond to different parts of the virus, it's the spike proteins that become the most attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins every bit a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

There are ii chief categories of antibodies:

Bounden antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike protein or a dissimilar protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies tin be detected with blood tests starting about one calendar week after the initial infection. If antibodies are found, it's extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The antibiotic level declines over time later on an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Binding antibodies help fight the infection, simply they might non offer protection against getting reinfected in the futurity. Information technology depends on whether they are besides neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus'south spike poly peptide, making it more hard for the virus to attach to and enter man 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-nineteen patients.

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

The allowed system responds to COVID-19 infection by stimulating white blood cells called lymphocytes to class antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective effect against reinfection. Merely information technology is only temporary. In that location have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-xix. In other words, a person got ill with COVID-19, recovered, and so became infected once more.

This has been particularly true as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-nineteen variants. At that place was a rising in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increment in the reinfection charge per unit due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has nigh 50 mutations, including more than 30 mutations on the spike protein, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize later previous infection. Because 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 subsequently vaccination are also more common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe illness.

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

Contagiousness of COVID-nineteen

How shortly after I'm infected with the new coronavirus volition I first to exist contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known equally the incubation period) is thought to exist 2 to xiv days. Symptoms typically appeared within v days for early on variants, and within iv 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 about infectious early in the course of their infection. With Omicron, most transmission occurs during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days after.

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, can assist reduce the gamble that someone who is infected but not yet experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Tin people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" can refer to 2 groups of people: those who eventually practise have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go along to take 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 feel symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may exist more likely to spread the illness, considering they are unlikely to be isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

Merely what near people who never proceed to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open up establish that well-nigh one out of every four infections may be transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to exist even higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and boosted once you are eligible is important for protecting not but yourself just others equally well; evidence suggests that you're less likely to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter menstruum of time, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long afterwards I am infected will I continue to be contagious? At what point in my disease will I be most contagious?

People are idea to be 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 afterwards. People with no symptoms can also spread the coronavirus to others.

Past the 10th 24-hour interval after COVID symptoms begin, almost people volition no longer exist contagious, as long as their symptoms take continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus merely never develop symptoms over the following 10 days after testing are too probably no longer contagious.

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

isolate at domicile for five days
if you accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, yous tin can discontinue isolation and leave your home
continue to wearable a mask around others for five additional days.

If y'all have a fever, go on to isolate at habitation until you lot no longer have a fever.

I'yard vaccinated but got a breakthrough COVID infection. Tin I even so spread the infection to others?

Yes, yous can. That'south why the CDC recommends that anybody who tests positive for COVID-nineteen 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 accept COVID-xix?

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

Stay in another room or be separated from the person as much as possible. Use a separate bedroom and bathroom, if available.
Brand sure that shared spaces in the habitation have good air flow. If possible, open up a window.
Wash your easily ofttimes with soap and water for at to the lowest degree 20 seconds or employ an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Utilise soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty.
Avoid touching your eyes, olfactory organ, and oral cavity with unwashed easily.
You and the person should wearable a face mask if you are in the aforementioned room.
Wearable a disposable face up mask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the person's blood, stool, or trunk fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out dispensable face up masks and gloves afterwards using them. Practise not reuse.
- First remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and throw abroad the face mask, and immediately clean your hands again with soap and water or booze-based hand sanitizer.
Do not share household items such every bit dishes, drinking spectacles, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is ill. Afterward the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
Clean all "high-bear upon" surfaces, such equally counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every twenty-four hours. Also, make 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 launder clothes or bedding that take blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
Wear disposable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items abroad from your body. Clean your hands immediately later removing your gloves.
Place all used dispensable gloves, face masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste matter. Clean your hands (with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) immediately after handling these items.

Tin people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-19 does appear to spread from people to pets, according to the FDA, though this is uncommon. Enquiry has found that cats and ferrets are more probable to get infected than dogs.

If you become sick with COVID-19, it's best to restrict contact with your pets, only similar y'all would around other people. This means y'all should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until you are feeling ameliorate. When possible, have another member of your household care for your pets while yous are ill. If y'all must care for your pet while you are ill, wash your hands before and after you interact with your pets and clothing a face mask.

At present, it is considered unlikely that pets tin spread the COVID-19 virus to humans. Yet, pets can spread other infections that cause affliction, includingEast. coli and Salmonella, so wash your easily thoroughly with soap and water later on interacting with your brute companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-nineteen

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 take an increased risk of developing other medical conditions, at least in the short term.

Ane study, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health program in the U.s.. The researchers compared data from more than 190,000 adults, ages 18 to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-two 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 later on they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded whatsoever new health complications.

They establish that xiv% of people who had had COVID-xix developed a new medical issue during the following six months; this was nearly v% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a meaning difference. New medical problems afflicted a range of trunk systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal middle rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney issues. Increased risk 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 wellness records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran'due south Health Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 simply were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five meg other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For half dozen months post-obit the offset 30 days after infection, people who had had COVID-19 were significantly more likely to die or to feel a medical or mental health problem that they had never had earlier.

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

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

Long haulers are people who take not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months after showtime experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel better for weeks, and so relapse with old or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes called mail-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, can cause similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging inquiry may aid predict who volition become a long hauler. Ane study constitute that COVID-xix patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their first week of disease were significantly more than probable to get long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty animate, a hoarse vocalisation, 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, every bit 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 do non crave hospitalization. Previously good for you young adults, not simply older adults with circumstantial medical conditions, are too experiencing mail service-COVID-19 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 later on concrete or mental activeness, brain fog, shortness of breath, chills, body ache, headache, articulation pain, breast hurting, cough, and lingering loss of gustatory modality or smell. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or memory loss that affects their day-to-twenty-four hour period ability to exercise things similar 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 than half of people infected with COVID-nineteen continued to experience at to the lowest degree 1 symptom half dozen months after their diagnosis.

There'due south already some speculation, just 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 propose that it triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which tin impact heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating, among other things.

Blog posts:

Could COVID-nineteen infection exist responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
What is COVID-19 brain fog — and how tin you clear information technology?
The tragedy of the postal service-COVID "long haulers"
The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID
Which test is best for COVID-nineteen?
Allergies? Mutual cold? Influenza? Or COVID-nineteen?

Podcast:

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

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-chapter WBZ TV in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when nosotros start to experience a dry cough or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you lot phone call? How do you protect your family? When does it brand sense to move toward an emergency department, and how should we prepare? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing's online class series, and an urgent care md at Mass General Hospital.

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

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Equally a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Delight note the date of last review or update on all manufactures. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used every bit a substitute for direct medical communication from your medico or other qualified clinician.

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

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