if ive been exposed to covid what should i do

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

Woman taking care of sick relative

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

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

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, common ones include fever, body ache, dry coughing, fatigue, chills, headache, sore throat, loss of appetite, and loss of smell. In some people, COVID-xix causes more severe symptoms similar loftier fever, astringent coughing, 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 odor, inability to taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In improver, some people take gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such every bit loss of appetite, nausea, airsickness, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-19.

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

Start, telephone call your md or pediatrician for advice.

If yous do not have a doctor and you are concerned that you or your child may have COVID-19, contact your local board of health. They can direct you to the all-time place for testing and treatment in your area. Over-the-counter tests may likewise be available at your local pharmacy or grocery shop.

If you do exam positive and either have no symptoms or tin recover at dwelling, you lot will still need to

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

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

If you have a high or very low trunk temperature, shortness of jiff, confusion, or feeling you might laissez passer out, you demand to seek immediate medical evaluation. Telephone call the urgent care center or emergency section ahead of time to let the staff know that you lot are coming, and so they can be prepared for your inflow.

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

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the ascendant strain, telling the difference is more than challenging than e'er. Even if you accept been vaccinated and boosted, you lot tin still become symptoms, but they are likely to be balmy to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the gamble of severe symptoms that can be life-threatening is yet substantial.

At the electric current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should presume they accept COVID. If possible, arrange to become tested or practice a dwelling test. If the exam is positive, you should isolate at home for five days. If you had a negative exam when symptoms started, information technology'southward still best to isolate at home for ii to three more than days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That'south because at that place is a chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means you can nonetheless accept COVID with a negative exam.) Consider testing again before going out. Once you are ready to get out dwelling, keep to consistently habiliment a mask for at least 5 more than 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 you are vaccinated and boosted, or take gotten your initial vaccine series within the last half dozen months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the last 2 months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should habiliment a mask around others for x days and take a COVID test on day five, if possible. If you lot develop symptoms, become tested sooner and isolate at habitation.

If you are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than six months agone and have not been boosted, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than than ii months ago and have not been additional, you should stay home for five days and wear a mask effectually others for an boosted five days. If you can't quarantine, wear a mask around others for 10 days. Get tested for COVID on day five, if possible. If you develop symptoms at any fourth dimension, get tested and isolate at home.

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

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which ways that they tin can be used to make up one's mind whether you currently have an active coronavirus infection. Even so, at that place are of import differences between these 2 types of tests.

PCR tests detect the presence of the virus's genetic fabric using a technique chosen reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this exam, a sample may exist 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 nowadays) is extracted from the sample and converted into Deoxyribonucleic acid. The Dna is and then amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral DNA are made, in society to produce a measurable outcome. The accurateness of any diagnostic exam depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the course of affliction the testing was washed, and whether the sample was maintained in advisable atmospheric condition while information technology 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 as rapid diagnostic tests because it can accept less than an hr to get the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, meaning that if you test positive you are very probable to be infected. However, there is a college chance of faux negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative result cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you have a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen exam to confirm the upshot.

It may be helpful to recollect 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 probable to be authentic, and allows diagnosis and handling to brainstorm speedily, while a negative result often results in farther testing to ostend or overturn the initial consequence.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Ii types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the U.s.. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, also called rapid diagnostic tests, discover specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen test results may come up back in as little as xv to 45 minutes; you may expect several days for PCR exam results.

The accuracy of any 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 be affected by the conditions in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may also be affected by the timing of the test. For example, if you are tested on the solar day yous were infected, your exam result is about 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 exam result decreases if y'all are tested a few days later on you were infected, or a few days after y'all develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a test result comes back positive, information technology is near certain that the person is infected.

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

If you feel COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR test consequence, there is no reason to repeat the test unless your symptoms become worse. If your symptoms practise worsen, call your medico or local or state healthcare department for guidance on further testing. You should also self-isolate at dwelling. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And exercise physical distancing.

What is serologic (antibody) testing for COVID-xix? What can it be used for?

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

Your body takes one to 3 weeks later on you take caused the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are non sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an active COVID-xix infection, even in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-xix

I've heard that the immune system produces different types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How practice they differ? Why is this important?

When a person gets or is vaccinated confronting a viral or bacterial infection, a healthy immune system makes antibodies confronting one or more 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 certain human cells. One time inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and besides turns on the product of proteins, both of which permit the virus to infect more than cells and spread throughout the torso, particularly to the lungs.

While the immune arrangement could potentially respond to different parts of the virus, it'due south the spike proteins that become the nigh attention. Immune cells recognize the fasten proteins as a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

There are two main categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies tin can bind to either the fasten protein or a different poly peptide known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies can be detected with blood tests starting most one week after the initial infection. If antibodies are found, it's extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-xix coronavirus. The antibiotic level declines over fourth dimension later on an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Binding antibodies help fight the infection, but they might not offer protection against getting reinfected in the future. It depends on whether they are likewise neutralizing antibodies.

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

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

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

The immune system responds to COVID-nineteen infection by stimulating white blood cells chosen lymphocytes to course antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective effect 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-nineteen, recovered, and so became infected again.

This has been especially true every bit the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. There was a ascent in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increment in the reinfection rate due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has about l mutations, including more than thirty mutations on the spike poly peptide, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize afterward previous infection. Considering of this, Omicron is more capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

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

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

Contagiousness of COVID-nineteen

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

The fourth dimension from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation period) is thought to be two to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared inside five days for early variants, and inside iv days for the Delta variant. The incubation period appears to be fifty-fifty shorter – about three days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be most infectious early in the form of their infection. With Omicron, most manual occurs during the 1 to 2 days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the two to 3 days afterwards.

Wearing masks, peculiarly indoors, can help reduce the risk 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 two groups of people: those who eventually do take symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on to have symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we have seen that people without symptoms tin can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-xix may be contagious 48 hours before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more than likely to spread the affliction, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

Only what near people who never go on to develop symptoms? A written report published inJAMA Network Open up found that virtually i out of every four infections may be transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic manual appears to exist even higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and boosted one time you lot are eligible is important for protecting not just yourself but others as well; bear witness suggests that you're less likely to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter period of time, in one case you've been vaccinated.

For how long after I am infected volition I go on to be contagious? How long practise I demand to isolate?

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

By the 10th twenty-four hours after COVID symptoms begin, virtually people volition no longer be contagious, as long as their symptoms have continued to ameliorate and their fever has resolved. People who examination positive for the virus but never develop symptoms over the following ten days after testing are likewise probably no longer contagious.

Co-ordinate to the CDC's isolation guidelines, everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should

isolate at home for 5 days
if y'all have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving subsequently five days, you can discontinue isolation and get out your home
continue to wear a mask around others for five additional days.

If you lot have a fever, proceed to isolate at abode until you no longer accept a fever.

You can apply the CDC's Quarantine and Isolation calculator to help determine when and how long you should stay domicile, get tested, and wear a mask around others if you lot have COVID-19 or were recently in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

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

Yep, you can. That's why the CDC recommends that everyone who tests positive for COVID-nineteen should isolate from others for at least 5 days, regardless of their vaccination status.

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

Y'all should take many of the same precautions every bit 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. Utilize a dissever bedroom and bathroom, if available.
Make sure that shared spaces in the dwelling house have good air flow. If possible, open a window.
Launder your hands often with lather and h2o for at to the lowest degree twenty seconds or employ an alcohol-based paw sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, roofing all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry out. Use soap and water if your easily are visibly dirty.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
You and the person should clothing a face mask if you are in the same room.
Wearable a disposable face mask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the person'due south blood, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal fungus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out disposable face masks and gloves after using them. Practice non reuse.
- Outset remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately clean your easily with soap and water or booze-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and throw abroad the face mask, and immediately make clean your hands again with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Practice non share household items such equally 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 as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every mean solar day. Also, clean any surfaces that may take blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe.
- Wash laundry thoroughly.
- Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that accept claret, stool, or trunk fluids on them.
Vesture dispensable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items away from your body. Make clean your easily 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 hand sanitizer) immediately after treatment these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

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

If you lot become sick with COVID-19, it's best to restrict contact with your pets, just 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 you are feeling better. When possible, have another member of your household care for your pets while you lot are sick. If you must care for your pet while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with your pets and wear 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 cause illness, includingE. coli and Salmonella, so launder your easily thoroughly with lather and h2o later interacting with your animal companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-xix

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

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

One study, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health 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 collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-two and recorded any new health complications.

They constitute that 14% of people who had had COVID-nineteen developed a new medical issue during the following half-dozen months; this was nearly 5% higher than the pre-pandemic command group, a significant difference. New medical problems affected a range of torso systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal middle rhythms, diabetes, neurological issues, and liver and kidney bug. Increased take chances 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 health records of more 73,000 users of the Veteran's Wellness Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but were never hospitalized, to those of near five 1000000 other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For six months post-obit the first 30 days after infection, people who had had COVID-19 were significantly more likely to die or to experience a medical or mental health problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide still 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 take not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months after beginning 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 post-COVID-19 syndrome or post-astute sequelae of SARS-CoV-two infection (PASC), is not unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme disease, can cause similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may help predict who volition become a long hauler. 1 study institute that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their first week of illness were significantly more likely to get long haulers. Sure symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty animate, a hoarse vox, and muscle or trunk aches — experienced solitary or in combination during the showtime week of illness also increased the chances of becoming 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 can become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially take mild to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and do not require hospitalization. Previously salubrious immature adults, not just older adults with coexisting medical conditions, are likewise experiencing post-COVID-xix syndrome.

Symptoms of postal service-COVID-xix syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, tin vary widely. Some of the more common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, encephalon fog, shortness of breath, chills, torso ache, headache, joint pain, chest hurting, cough, and lingering loss of gustatory modality or smell. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or retention loss that affects their solar day-to-day power to do things like make decisions, have conversations, follow instructions, and drive. 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 reported that more than than half of people infected with COVID-19 continued to experience at least 1 symptom six months after their diagnosis.

There's already some speculation, just no definite answers, nigh what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers suspect that SARS-CoV-two infection triggers long-lasting changes in the immune organization. Others advise that it triggers autonomic nervous organisation dysregulation, which can bear upon heart charge per unit, blood pressure, and sweating, amongst other things.

Blog posts:

Brain fog: Retention and attention afterward COVID-nineteen
Could COVID-xix infection exist responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
What is COVID-xix brain fog — and how tin can you articulate it?
The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
The hidden long-term cerebral effects of COVID
Which exam is best for COVID-19?
Allergies? Common common cold? Flu? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

Yous think you've got COVID-19. Here's what you need to exercise (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 Schoolhouse, how we should react when nosotros start to experience a dry coughing or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you telephone call? How exercise you protect your family unit? When does it make sense to move toward an emergency department, and how should nosotros prepare? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing'south online course series, and an urgent care doc at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Center for more 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