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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 experience symptoms of the disease, 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 abode? How soon after yous're infected will you start to be contagious? And what can you do to preclude others in your household from getting sick?

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

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

Symptoms of COVID-xix

What are the symptoms of COVID-xix?

Some people infected with the virus have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, mutual ones include fever, body ache, dry out cough, fatigue, chills, headache, sore throat, loss of appetite, and loss of olfactory property. In some people, COVID-xix causes more severe symptoms similar high fever, severe cough, and shortness of breath, which often indicates pneumonia.

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

For instance, COVID-19 affects brain office 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, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

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

What should I do if I recollect I or my child may have a COVID-nineteen infection?

First, call your doctor or pediatrician for advice.

If you practise non have a doc and you are concerned that you or your child may accept COVID-19, contact your local board of health. They can direct yous to the best place for testing and treatment in your surface area. Over-the-counter tests may also exist bachelor at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

If you lot do test positive and either take no symptoms or can recover at abode, y'all volition even so need to

isolate at home for five days
if yous have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving later on 5 days, you lot tin discontinue isolation and leave your home
continue to wear a mask around others for v additional days.

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

If you have a high or very low body temperature, shortness of jiff, defoliation, or feeling you might pass out, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Telephone call the urgent care heart or emergency department ahead of fourth dimension to let the staff know that yous are coming, then they can be prepared for your arrival.

How do I know if I have COVID-nineteen, the flu, or merely a cold?

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

At the current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should presume they accept COVID. If possible, adjust to get tested or do a abode test. If the examination is positive, y'all should isolate at dwelling for five days. If you had a negative exam when symptoms started, information technology's nonetheless best to isolate at habitation for 2 to three more days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That'southward because there is a run a risk of false negatives with antigen tests, which ways you can still have COVID with a negative examination.) Consider testing again before going out. Once you are gear up to leave abode, continue to consistently wear a mask for at least five more days.

COVID-19 Testing

I recently spent fourth dimension with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. I'k fully vaccinated and additional. Do I demand to go tested?

Co-ordinate to the latest CDC guidelines, if you lot are vaccinated and additional, or have gotten your initial vaccine series within the last six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the terminal two months (for Johnson & Johnson), yous should vesture a mask around others for 10 days and have a COVID test on mean solar day v, if possible. If you develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at home.

If you are unvaccinated, had your terminal Pfizer or Moderna shot more than six months agone and have not been additional, or had your Johnson & Johnson testify more than 2 months agone and have not been boosted, you should stay home for v days and wear a mask around others for an additional five days. If you lot tin't quarantine, habiliment a mask effectually others for 10 days. Get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If y'all develop symptoms at whatever time, go tested and isolate at home.

What is the deviation betwixt a PCR exam and an antigen test for COVID-19?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they tin be used to determine whether you currently have an active coronavirus infection. However, at that place are of import differences between these 2 types of tests.

PCR tests notice the presence of the virus's genetic material using a technique called 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 exist used. The sample is typically sent to a laboratory where coronavirus RNA (if present) is extracted from the sample and converted into Dna. The Deoxyribonucleic acid is and so amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral DNA are made, in order to produce a measurable upshot. The accuracy of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly, when during the course of affliction the testing was washed, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate weather while information technology was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to as rapid diagnostic tests considering it can have less than an 60 minutes to get the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, meaning that if you test positive you are very likely to be infected. However, at that place is a higher gamble of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative result cannot definitively dominion out an active infection. If you take a negative effect on an antigen exam, your md may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen test to confirm the result.

Information technology may be helpful to think of a COVID antigen examination every bit you would call back of a rapid strep exam or a rapid influenza examination. A positive result for any of these tests is likely to exist accurate, and allows diagnosis and treatment to begin quickly, while a negative result often results in farther testing to confirm or overturn the initial consequence.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the United states of america. 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 back in as piddling equally 15 to 45 minutes; you may await several days for PCR test results.

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

Results may also be affected by the timing of the test. For example, if you lot are tested on the day you were infected, your test result is almost guaranteed to come dorsum negative, because there are non however enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to detect. The take a chance of getting a false negative test result decreases if y'all are tested a few days after yous were infected, or a few days later on you develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a test result comes back positive, it is almost certain that the person is infected.

A negative exam result is less definite. There is a college run a risk of false negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may be fifty-fifty more than probable to miss the Omicron variant. If you have a negative upshot on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR test or recommend a 2d rapid antigen test to confirm the effect.

If you lot feel COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR exam result, there is no reason to echo the exam unless your symptoms go worse. If your symptoms do worsen, call your doctor or local or country healthcare department for guidance on further testing. You should also self-isolate at abode. Wearable a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

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

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

Your body takes 1 to three weeks after you have acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are non 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 immune system produces different types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-xix coronavirus. How exercise 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-19 coronavirus contains ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded past a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to sure human cells. Once 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, especially to the lungs.

While the immune organisation could potentially respond to unlike parts of the virus, information technology'south the fasten proteins that go the most attending. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins as a foreign substance and brainstorm producing antibodies in response.

In that location are two main categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike poly peptide or a dissimilar protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies can be detected with blood tests starting about one week after the initial infection. If antibodies are found, it'due south extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-nineteen coronavirus. The antibody level declines over time afterwards an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

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

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus's fasten poly peptide, making it more than difficult for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more than lasting protection than bounden 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 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 effect against reinfection. But information technology is merely temporary. There have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-nineteen, recovered, and then became infected once 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 near 50 mutations, including more than thirty mutations on the spike poly peptide, the region of the virus that our allowed 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 immune response, even in those who have been previously infected, and further reduces the risk of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are likewise more than mutual with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe illness.

The lesser line? Get vaccinated and additional whether or not y'all've already had COVID-19.

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How before long later I'm infected with the new coronavirus will I start to exist contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation catamenia) is thought to be two to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared within v days for early variants, and within four days for the Delta variant. The incubation menstruation appears to be even shorter – about 3 days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be most infectious early in the grade of their infection. With Omicron, nigh transmission occurs during the one to 2 days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to 3 days subsequently.

Wearing masks, specially indoors, can aid reduce the gamble 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 2 groups of people: those who eventually do accept symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on 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 feel symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more than likely to spread the disease, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

But what about people who never become on to develop symptoms? A report published inJAMA Network Open found that almost one out of every four infections may be transmitted past individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be even higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and additional once yous are eligible is of import for protecting not just yourself but others equally well; evidence suggests that y'all're less probable to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter menstruation of time, one time you've been vaccinated.

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

People are thought to be most contagious early in the course of their disease. With Omicron, about transmission appears to occur during the one to two days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the 2 to three days later on. People with no symptoms can also spread the coronavirus to others.

By the 10th day after COVID symptoms begin, most people volition no longer be contagious, every bit long as their symptoms accept continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus but never develop symptoms over the post-obit x days afterwards testing are also probably no longer contagious.

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

isolate at dwelling house for five days
if you lot have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you can discontinue isolation and leave your habitation
go along to clothing a mask effectually others for v additional days.

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

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

Yes, you can. That'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 can I protect myself while caring for someone that may have COVID-19?

Yous should accept many of the aforementioned precautions every bit you would if you were caring for someone with the flu:

Stay in some other room or exist separated from the person every bit much as possible. Utilize a divide bedchamber and bathroom, if bachelor.
Brand certain that shared spaces in the dwelling house accept skillful air flow. If possible, open a window.
Wash your hands often 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 feel dry out. Utilise soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty.
Avert touching your eyes, nose, and rima oris with unwashed hands.
You and the person should clothing a face mask if you are in the same room.
Article of clothing a disposable face mask and gloves when you touch on or have contact with the person's blood, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out disposable face up masks and gloves after using them. Do non reuse.
- Get-go 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 lather and water or booze-based paw sanitizer.
Do not share household items such every bit dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. Subsequently the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
Clean all "high-touch on" surfaces, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every twenty-four hours. As well, clean whatever 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 accept blood, stool, or trunk fluids on them.
Habiliment disposable gloves while treatment soiled items and keep soiled items abroad from your body. Make clean your hands immediately afterward removing your gloves.
Identify all used disposable gloves, face masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste material. Clean your easily (with soap and h2o or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) immediately subsequently handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-nineteen virus?

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

If you go sick with COVID-nineteen, it's best to restrict contact with your pets, just like yous would around other people. This means yous should forgo petting, snuggling, existence kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until you 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 you are ill, launder your hands before and later on you interact with your pets and article of clothing a face mask.

At present, it is considered unlikely that pets can spread the COVID-nineteen virus to humans. However, pets can spread other infections that crusade disease, includingDue east. coli and Salmonella, so wash your hands thoroughly with lather and water after interacting with your creature companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-19

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

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

I study, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory exam and infirmary admissions information from a wellness plan in the U.s.. The researchers compared data from more than 190,000 adults, ages eighteen 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, earlier the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-ii and recorded whatever new health complications.

They found that xiv% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical effect during the following six months; this was most five% higher than the pre-pandemic control grouping, a pregnant difference. New medical problems afflicted a range of body systems and included respiratory failure, aberrant heart rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney problems. Increased adventure was seen in younger, previously healthy people, but was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical issues.

Another study, published inNature, compared the wellness records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran's Wellness Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-two but were never hospitalized, to those of nearly v million other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-xix and were never hospitalized. For six months following the first thirty days later infection, people who had had COVID-19 were significantly more than 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 get vaccinated and boosted if yous are eligible.

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

Long haulers are people who take not fully recovered from COVID-nineteen weeks or even months after first 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 feel, sometimes chosen post-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 will become a long hauler. One report constitute that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their first week of illness were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse vocalization, and musculus or body aches — experienced alone or in combination during the first week of illness also increased the chances of condign a long hauler, as did increasing age and college trunk mass index (BMI).

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

Symptoms of mail service-COVID-19 syndrome, similar symptoms of COVID-19 itself, can vary widely. Some of the more mutual lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms subsequently physical or mental activity, brain fog, shortness of jiff, chills, torso ache, headache, joint pain, chest hurting, cough, and lingering loss of taste or scent. Many long haulers report cerebral dysfunction or memory loss that affects their day-to-mean solar day power to do things like make decisions, take conversations, follow instructions, and drive. The mutual 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 feel at least i symptom six months after their diagnosis.

There's 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 information technology triggers autonomic nervous arrangement dysregulation, which can impact middle rate, blood pressure, and sweating, among other things.

Blog posts:

Could COVID-19 infection be responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
What is COVID-19 brain fog — and how tin can y'all clear information technology?
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 common cold? Influenza? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

Y'all think you've got COVID-19. Here'south what you need to exercise (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 Schoolhouse, how we should react when nosotros start to experience a dry cough or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you call? How do you protect your family? When does information technology brand sense to motion toward an emergency department, and how should we set up? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing'south online grade serial, and an urgent care physician at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resources Center 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