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

Woman taking care of sick relative

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-xix or begin to experience symptoms of the illness, you may be asked to self-quarantine or cocky-isolate. What does that entail, and what can you do to gear up yourself for an extended stay at home? How before long after yous're infected volition you start to be contagious? And what can you do to prevent others in your household from getting sick?

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

Jump 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 have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, mutual ones include fever, body anguish, dry cough, fatigue, chills, headache, sore throat, loss of ambition, and loss of smell. In some people, COVID-xix causes more severe symptoms like high fever, severe cough, and shortness of breath, which often indicates pneumonia.

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

For example, COVID-19 affects brain role in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-19 include loss of smell, inability to sense of taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In improver, 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 remember I or my child may have a COVID-19 infection?

Starting time, call your md or pediatrician for advice.

If you lot do not have a dr. and you are concerned that you or your kid may have COVID-19, contact your local board of health. They can straight y'all to the best place for testing and treatment in your expanse. Over-the-counter tests may also be available at your local chemist's or grocery store.

If y'all do test positive and either have no symptoms or can recover at domicile, yous volition even so need to

isolate at home for five days
if you accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after v days, you tin discontinue isolation and leave your dwelling house
continue to wear a mask around others for five additional days.

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

If y'all take a high or very low body temperature, shortness of jiff, defoliation, or feeling you might pass out, you need to seek firsthand medical evaluation. Call the urgent care heart or emergency section ahead of time to let the staff know that yous are coming, then they can be prepared for your inflow.

How exercise I know if I take COVID-19, the flu, or merely a cold?

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain, telling the divergence is more challenging than always. Even if you lot take been vaccinated and boosted, yous tin still go symptoms, but they are likely to be balmy to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the risk of severe symptoms that tin be life-threatening is still substantial.

At the current fourth dimension, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they take COVID. If possible, arrange to get tested or do a home test. If the test is positive, you should isolate at home for five days. If you had a negative test when symptoms started, it's still best to isolate at dwelling for ii to three more than days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That's because at that place is a chance of fake negatives with antigen tests, which means you can yet have COVID with a negative test.) Consider testing again earlier going out. Once you are ready to leave domicile, continue to consistently wear a mask for at to the lowest degree 5 more days.

COVID-nineteen Testing

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

Co-ordinate to the latest CDC guidelines, if yous are vaccinated and boosted, or have gotten your initial vaccine serial within the last six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the last two months (for Johnson & Johnson), you lot should wear a mask effectually others for 10 days and have a COVID test on day 5, if possible. If you lot develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at home.

If you are unvaccinated, had your concluding Pfizer or Moderna shot more than than vi months agone and have not been boosted, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than ii months agone and have not been boosted, you should stay abode for five days and vesture a mask effectually others for an boosted v days. If yous can't quarantine, wear a mask effectually others for 10 days. Get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at whatever fourth dimension, become tested and isolate at dwelling.

What is the departure 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 exist used to determine whether you lot currently accept an active coronavirus infection. However, there are important differences between these ii types of tests.

PCR tests detect 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 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 then amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral DNA are made, in lodge to produce a measurable upshot. The accurateness of any diagnostic examination depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the course of affliction the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in advisable conditions while it was shipped to the laboratory. By and large speaking, PCR tests are highly authentic.

Antigen tests detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to every bit rapid diagnostic tests considering it tin take less than an hr to get the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, significant that if yous test positive you are very likely to be infected. However, in that location is a higher chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative result cannot definitively dominion out an active infection. If you have a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may society a PCR test or a 2d rapid antigen test to ostend the result.

It may exist helpful to think of a COVID antigen test as yous would recollect of a rapid strep examination or a rapid influenza test. A positive result for whatever of these tests is likely to exist accurate, and allows diagnosis and treatment to begin chop-chop, while a negative outcome oft 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 The states. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, also called rapid diagnostic tests, find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen examination results may come up back in every bit footling equally 15 to 45 minutes; you may expect several days for PCR test results.

The accuracy 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, examination results may be afflicted by the weather in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may besides exist affected by the timing of the test. For example, if you are tested on the twenty-four hour period you were infected, your test result is almost guaranteed to come back negative, because there are not all the same enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to detect. The take chances of getting a false negative test result decreases if you are tested a few days afterward you were infected, or a few days subsequently you lot develop symptoms.

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

A negative test consequence is less definite. There is a higher gamble of imitation negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may exist even more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If you take a negative outcome on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR examination or recommend a second rapid antigen test to confirm the result.

If you feel COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR test result, at that place is no reason to repeat the test unless your symptoms get worse. If your symptoms do worsen, phone call your medico or local or state healthcare department for guidance on further testing. You should besides cocky-isolate at home. Wearable a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice concrete distancing.

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

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

Your trunk takes one to three weeks after you 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-19 infection, fifty-fifty 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-19 coronavirus. How do they differ? Why is this important?

When a person gets or is vaccinated confronting a viral or bacterial infection, a healthy allowed system makes antibodies against one or more components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-19 coronavirus contains ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that tin can latch on to 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, peculiarly to the lungs.

While the allowed system could potentially answer to different parts of the virus, it'south the spike proteins that get the almost attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins every bit a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

There are two main categories of antibodies:

Bounden antibodies. These antibodies can demark to either the spike protein or a unlike protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies can be detected with blood tests starting near one week afterwards the initial infection. If antibodies are establish, information technology'south extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The antibody level declines over fourth dimension after an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

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

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

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

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

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

This has been particularly truthful as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-nineteen 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 l mutations, including more than thirty mutations on the spike protein, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize afterwards previous infection. Because of this, Omicron is more capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

Nosotros have learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural allowed response, even in those who have been previously infected, and further reduces the take chances of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections afterwards vaccination are also more than common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against astringent illness.

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

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How soon after I'm infected with the new coronavirus will I start to be contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation menstruum) is thought to exist two to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared within five days for early variants, and within 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 in the class of their infection. With Omicron, nigh transmission occurs during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards.

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, tin assist reduce the chance that someone who is infected but not notwithstanding 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 somewhen practice have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on to have symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we take 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 likely to spread the affliction, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may non adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

Simply what about people who never go on to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open establish that almost i out of every four infections may exist transmitted past individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be even college with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and additional once y'all are eligible is important for protecting non just yourself simply others as well; prove suggests that you're less likely to infect others, or may exist contagious for a shorter period of time, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long after I am infected will I go along to be contagious? At what point in my disease will I be nearly contagious?

People are idea to exist most contagious early in the course of their illness. With Omicron, almost transmission appears to occur during the i to two days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards. People with no symptoms tin can likewise spread the coronavirus to others.

By the 10th day after COVID symptoms begin, most people will no longer be contagious, as long equally their symptoms have continued to ameliorate and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus simply never develop symptoms over the post-obit x days after testing are besides probably no longer contagious.

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

isolate at abode for five days
if you lot have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you can discontinue isolation and get out your domicile
go on to wear a mask around others for 5 boosted days.

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

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

Yes, you can. That'southward why the CDC recommends that anybody 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?

You should accept many of the same precautions as y'all would if you lot were caring for someone with the flu:

Stay in another room or be separated from the person every bit much equally possible. Use a separate sleeping accommodation and bathroom, if available.
Make sure that shared spaces in the abode take proficient air catamenia. If possible, open up a window.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least xx seconds or utilise an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your easily and rubbing them together until they feel dry out. Use soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty.
Avoid touching your eyes, olfactory organ, and mouth with unwashed easily.
You and the person should wear a face mask if you are in the aforementioned room.
Wear a disposable face mask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the person's claret, stool, or torso fluids, such every bit saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out dispensable face up masks and gloves afterward using them. Do non reuse.
- Showtime remove and throw abroad gloves. And then, immediately make clean your easily with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately clean your easily again with soap and h2o or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Do non share household items such as dishes, drinking glasses, 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 every bit counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every day. Also, clean whatever surfaces that may have claret, stool, or body fluids on them. Apply a household cleaning spray or wipe.
- Launder laundry thoroughly.
- Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that have blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
Wear disposable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items away from your body. Clean your hands immediately afterwards 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. Make clean your easily (with lather and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) immediately later on handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-xix 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 likely to become infected than dogs.

If you lot become sick with COVID-xix, information technology'due south best to restrict contact with your pets, merely like you would around other people. This means you should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing nutrient or bedding with your pet until y'all are feeling ameliorate. When possible, have another fellow member of your household care for your pets while you are sick. If y'all must intendance for your pet while yous are sick, wash your hands before and after you lot interact with your pets and wearable a face mask.

At present, information technology is considered unlikely that pets tin can spread the COVID-19 virus to humans. Even so, pets tin spread other infections that cause illness, includingDue east. coli and Salmonella, so wash your hands thoroughly with lather and water after interacting with your fauna companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-19

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

It does announced that people who recover from COVID-xix accept an increased risk of developing other medical conditions, at to the lowest degree in the curt term.

One report, published inThe BMJ, nerveless laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health programme in the US. The researchers compared information 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 command grouping that was collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months subsequently they tested positive for SARS-CoV-two and recorded any new wellness complications.

They found that 14% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical effect during the post-obit half-dozen months; this was nigh 5% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a significant difference. New medical problems affected a range of body systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal middle rhythms, diabetes, neurological issues, and liver and kidney problems. Increased adventure was seen in younger, previously healthy people, merely was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Some other study, published inNature, compared the health records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran's Wellness Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five 1000000 other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-xix and were never hospitalized. For six months post-obit the starting time 30 days later infection, people who had had COVID-xix were significantly more than likely to die or to experience a medical or mental health problem that they had never had earlier.

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

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

Long haulers are people who have not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months after first experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel better for weeks, then relapse with erstwhile or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes called postal service-COVID-19 syndrome or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-ii infection (PASC), is not unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme disease, can cause like long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may assist predict who volition become a long hauler. One written report found that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their outset calendar week of illness were significantly more probable to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse phonation, and musculus or body aches — experienced lonely or in combination during the first week of illness besides increased the chances of becoming a long hauler, as did increasing age and college body mass index (BMI).

Though these factors may increment the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone tin can become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially accept balmy to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and do not require hospitalization. Previously healthy young adults, non only older adults with coexisting medical conditions, are likewise experiencing post-COVID-xix syndrome.

Symptoms of post-COVID-nineteen syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-nineteen itself, tin can vary widely. Some of the more common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activeness, encephalon fog, shortness of jiff, chills, body ache, headache, joint pain, chest hurting, cough, and lingering loss of taste or aroma. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or retention loss that affects their day-to-day ability to do things similar brand decisions, have 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 one-half of people infected with COVID-nineteen continued to experience at least 1 symptom six months afterwards their diagnosis.

At that place'southward already some speculation, simply no definite answers, most what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers suspect that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers long-lasting changes in the immune arrangement. Others propose that information technology triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which can bear upon heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating, among other things.

Blog posts:

Encephalon fog: Retentivity and attention after COVID-19
Could COVID-xix infection be responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
What is COVID-19 brain fog — and how tin you clear information technology?
The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
The subconscious long-term cognitive effects of COVID
Which test is best for COVID-nineteen?
Allergies? Common cold? Flu? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

Yous recall you've got COVID-19. Here's what y'all demand to do (recorded iv/10/xx)

Nosotros asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ TV in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when we start to experience a dry cough or perhaps spike a fever. Who exercise y'all phone call? How practise you 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 Health Publishing'south online grade series, and an urgent care md at Mass General Infirmary.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Heart for more than information 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