How Long Do You Know if You Have Covid

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

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to experience symptoms of the affliction, you may be asked to cocky-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what can yous exercise to prepare yourself for an extended stay at home? How soon later on you're infected will you lot start to be contagious? And what tin can you exercise to forestall others in your household from getting sick?

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

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

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

For instance, COVID-nineteen affects encephalon office in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-xix include loss of olfactory property, disability to taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

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

What should I practise if I think I or my kid may accept a COVID-19 infection?

Get-go, call your doctor or pediatrician for advice.

If y'all do non have a doctor and you are concerned that you lot or your child may take COVID-19, contact your local board of health. They can direct you to the best place for testing and handling in your area. Over-the-counter tests may also be available at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

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

• isolate at domicile for v days
• if yous have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you lot can discontinue isolation and leave your home
• keep to wear a mask around others for five additional days.

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

If you have a high or very low body temperature, shortness of jiff, confusion, or feeling yous might laissez passer out, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Call the urgent intendance center or emergency section alee of fourth dimension to let the staff know that yous are coming, so they can be prepared for your arrival.

How practise I know if I take COVID-xix, the influenza, or just a cold?

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-xix is the ascendant strain, telling the deviation is more challenging than e'er. Even if you take been vaccinated and additional, you can however get symptoms, simply they are likely to exist mild to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the chance of severe symptoms that tin be life-threatening is still substantial.

At the electric current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they have COVID. If possible, arrange to get tested or do a domicile test. If the test is positive, you should isolate at home for five days. If you had a negative test when symptoms started, it'southward still best to isolate at home for two to 3 more days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That'south because there is a chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which ways you can still accept COVID with a negative examination.) Consider testing once more before going out. One time you are ready to leave home, proceed to consistently wear a mask for at least five more than days.

COVID-19 Testing

I recently spent fourth dimension 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 series within the last half-dozen months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the final two months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should wear a mask around others for ten days and take a COVID test on day 5, if possible. If you lot develop symptoms, go tested sooner and isolate at habitation.

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

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

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they can be used to determine whether you currently accept an active coronavirus infection. However, there are important differences between these two types of tests.

PCR tests detect the presence of the virus'south 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 Deoxyribonucleic acid. The Deoxyribonucleic acid is and so amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral DNA are made, in order to produce a measurable consequence. The accuracy of whatever diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly, when during the form of illness the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate conditions while information technology was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests discover specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to as rapid diagnostic tests because it can accept less than an hour to get the test results. Positive antigen exam results are highly specific, meaning that if you test positive you lot are very likely to be infected. However, there is a higher adventure of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative outcome cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you have a negative event on an antigen examination, your doctor may society a PCR test or a second rapid antigen exam to confirm the upshot.

It may be helpful to think of a COVID antigen test as y'all would remember of a rapid strep test or a rapid flu examination. A positive result for any of these tests is likely to be authentic, and allows diagnosis and treatment to brainstorm apace, while a negative result often results in farther testing to confirm or overturn the initial result.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-xix?

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

The accuracy of whatever diagnostic exam 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 afflicted by the conditions in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may besides be afflicted past the timing of the test. For case, if yous are tested on the 24-hour interval you were infected, your test result is virtually guaranteed to come back negative, because there are not nonetheless plenty viral particles in your nose or saliva to detect. The hazard of getting a faux negative test result decreases if you are tested a few days afterward you lot were infected, or a few days after you develop symptoms.

Mostly speaking, if a test result comes back positive, information technology is about sure that the person is infected.

A negative test result is less definite. In that location is a college chance of false negatives with antigen tests, and early information suggests that antigen tests may exist even more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If you lot have a negative result on an antigen examination, your physician may gild a PCR examination or recommend a second rapid antigen exam 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 become worse. If your symptoms exercise worsen, phone call your doctor or local or state healthcare section for guidance on further testing. You should likewise self-isolate at domicile. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

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

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

Your body takes one to three weeks afterward you have acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are not sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an agile COVID-19 infection, even in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-19

I've heard that the immune organization produces unlike types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How exercise 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 against one 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 tin can latch on to certain human being cells. Once within the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and also turns on the product of proteins, both of which permit the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, particularly to the lungs.

While the allowed system could potentially respond to different parts of the virus, it's the spike proteins that get the most attending. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins as a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

At that place are two main categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies can demark to either the fasten poly peptide or a different protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies tin can be detected with blood tests starting about 1 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 antibody level declines over fourth dimension after an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Binding antibodies assistance fight the infection, only they might not offer protection confronting getting reinfected in the future. It depends on whether they are besides neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The torso makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus'south fasten protein, making it more difficult for the virus to attach to and enter human being 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 antibody treatments for certain groups of COVID-19 patients.

Tin a person who has been infected with coronavirus become infected once again?

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

This has been especially true equally the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. There was a ascension in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increment in the reinfection rate due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more than xxx mutations on the spike protein, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize after previous infection. Considering of this, Omicron is more than capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

Nosotros have learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural immune response, even in those who accept been previously infected, and further reduces the risk of reinfection. Although quantum infections after vaccination are also more than common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against astringent affliction.

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

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How soon after I'm infected with the new coronavirus will I offset to exist contagious?

The fourth dimension from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation period) is thought to exist two to fourteen days. Symptoms typically appeared within 5 days for early variants, and within iv days for the Delta variant. The incubation menstruation appears to exist even shorter – about three days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be most infectious early on in the course of their infection. With Omicron, well-nigh transmission occurs during the ane to 2 days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the two to iii days afterwards.

Wearing masks, especially indoors, can help reduce the risk that someone who is infected but non notwithstanding experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Can people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" tin refer to two groups of people: those who eventually do have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never keep to take symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we have seen that people without symptoms tin can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-19 may exist contagious 48 hours earlier starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more than likely to spread the illness, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may not prefer behaviors designed to preclude spread.

But what about people who never become on to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open found that most ane out of every 4 infections may be transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be even higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and additional once you are eligible is important for protecting not just yourself simply others as well; bear witness suggests that you're less likely to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter period 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 disease will I be nearly contagious?

People are thought to be most contagious early in the grade of their illness. With Omicron, virtually 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.

By the 10th mean solar day after COVID symptoms begin, about people volition no longer be contagious, every bit long as their symptoms have continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who examination positive for the virus simply never develop symptoms over the following 10 days after testing are as well probably no longer contagious.

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

• isolate at dwelling for five days
• if y'all accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving afterward five days, you can discontinue isolation and leave your home
• continue to wear a mask around others for five additional days.

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

I'thousand vaccinated but got a breakthrough COVID infection. Tin can I still 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 v days, regardless of their vaccination status.

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

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

• Stay in some other room or be separated from the person every bit much every bit possible. Utilise a dissever bedroom and bathroom, if available.
• Make sure that shared spaces in the dwelling take good air flow. If possible, open a window.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or utilize 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. Utilise soap and water if your hands are visibly muddied.
• Avert touching your eyes, olfactory organ, and oral fissure with unwashed easily.
• You lot and the person should wear a face mask if you are in the same room.
• Wear a disposable face up mask and gloves when y'all touch or have contact with the person'southward claret, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
  • Throw out disposable face masks and gloves after using them. Do not reuse.
  • First remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately clean your hands with soap and water or booze-based paw sanitizer. Side by side, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately clean your hands once more with soap and water or alcohol-based manus sanitizer.
• Do not share household items such as dishes, drinking spectacles, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. Afterward the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
• Clean all "high-touch" surfaces, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every day. Likewise, clean whatsoever surfaces that may have claret, stool, or body fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe.
  • Wash laundry thoroughly.
  • Immediately remove and wash apparel or bedding that accept blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
• Clothing disposable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items abroad from your torso. Clean your hands immediately after 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 product. Clean your easily (with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) immediately after handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-xix virus?

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

If you lot go sick with COVID-19, it's all-time to restrict contact with your pets, just similar you would around other people. This means you should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until you are feeling improve. When possible, have another fellow member of your household care for your pets while you are sick. If you must intendance for your pet while y'all are sick, launder your hands before and after you interact with your pets and habiliment a face mask.

At nowadays, it is considered unlikely that pets can spread the COVID-19 virus to humans. However, pets can spread other infections that cause disease, includingE. coli and Salmonella, and so wash your hands thoroughly with lather and water later interacting with your beast companions.

Long Term Furnishings of COVID-nineteen

I had COVID-nineteen a few months agone. Am I at increased risk for wellness problems in the future?

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

1 written report, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health plan in the US. The researchers compared information from more than 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 grouping that was collected in 2019, earlier the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for 6 months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded any new health complications.

They found that xiv% of people who had had COVID-19 adult a new medical issue during the following half-dozen months; this was nearly five% higher than the pre-pandemic control grouping, a significant difference. New medical issues affected a range of torso systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal heart rhythms, diabetes, neurological issues, and liver and kidney problems. Increased risk was seen in younger, previously good for you people, but was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical bug.

Another study, published inNature, compared the health records of more than than 73,000 users of the Veteran'south Health Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 simply were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five 1000000 other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-xix and were never hospitalized. For 6 months following the first xxx days later infection, people who had had COVID-xix were significantly more probable to dice or to experience a medical or mental wellness problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide all the same some other reason to get vaccinated and boosted if y'all are eligible.

Who are long-haulers? And what is postal service-viral syndrome?

Long haulers are people who take not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or fifty-fifty months after get-go experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers feel continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others experience better for weeks, then relapse with old or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes chosen postal service-COVID-19 syndrome or mail-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-two infection (PASC), is not unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme illness, can crusade like long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may help predict who volition become a long hauler. One report found that COVID-xix patients who experienced more than v symptoms during their commencement week of illness were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse voice, and muscle or body aches — experienced alone or in combination during the first week of disease as well increased the chances of becoming a long hauler, as did increasing age and higher torso mass alphabetize (BMI).

Though these factors may increment 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 require hospitalization. Previously healthy young adults, not just older adults with coexisting medical weather condition, are too experiencing post-COVID-19 syndrome.

Symptoms of mail-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, can vary widely. Some of the more common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, encephalon fog, shortness of jiff, chills, trunk ache, headache, joint pain, chest pain, cough, and lingering loss of sense of taste or aroma. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or memory loss that affects their day-to-day 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 health, and ongoing symptoms are negatively affecting their quality of life. A systematic review published in JAMA Network Open reported that more than than one-half of people infected with COVID-19 continued to experience at least one symptom vi months after their diagnosis.

In that location'south 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 immune system. Others propose that it triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which can impact middle rate, blood pressure, and sweating, amongst other things.

Blog posts:

• Could COVID-19 infection be responsible for your depressed mood or feet?
• What is COVID-19 encephalon fog — and how tin you articulate it?
• The tragedy of the mail-COVID "long haulers"
• The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID
• Which test is best for COVID-19?
• Allergies? Mutual cold? Influenza? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

You lot think you've got COVID-19. Here's what you need to do (recorded 4/x/20)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ Television in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical Schoolhouse, how we should react when we start to experience a dry cough or mayhap spike a fever. Who practice you call? How practise you protect your family? When does it brand sense to movement toward an emergency department, and how should nosotros ready? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing'south online course series, and an urgent intendance physician at Mass General Infirmary.

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

Share this page:

• Share this page to Facebook
• Share this page to Twitter
• Share this page to Google Plus
• E-mail this page

As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides admission to our library of archived content. Please note the engagement of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should always exist used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doc or other qualified clinician.

brewingtonberved.blogspot.com

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