How Many Days Until You Know You Have Covid

If you've been exposed, are sick, or are caring for someone with COVID-19

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to experience symptoms of the disease, yous may be asked to self-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what tin you do to ready yourself for an extended stay at dwelling house? How before long after yous're infected volition you commencement to be contagious? And what tin y'all do to prevent others in your household from getting sick?

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Centre 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, common ones include fever, body ache, dry cough, fatigue, chills, headache, sore pharynx, loss of appetite, and loss of smell. In some people, COVID-nineteen causes more than severe symptoms like loftier fever, severe cough, and shortness of jiff, which often indicates pneumonia.

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

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

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

What should I do if I think I or my child may accept a COVID-xix infection?

First, phone call your doctor or pediatrician for advice.

If you do non have a md and you are concerned that yous or your child may take COVID-nineteen, contact your local board of wellness. They can straight you to the best identify for testing and treatment in your area. Over-the-counter tests may also exist available at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

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

• isolate at abode for v days
• if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving later five days, y'all tin can discontinue isolation and leave your abode
• continue to habiliment a mask around others for five boosted days.

If yous have a fever, continue to isolate at dwelling house until y'all no longer have a fever.

If you lot have a high or very depression body temperature, shortness of breath, confusion, or feeling you might pass out, you need to seek firsthand medical evaluation. Phone call the urgent care heart or emergency section alee of fourth dimension to let the staff know that y'all are coming, so they can exist prepared for your arrival.

How do I know if I have COVID-xix, the flu, or just a cold?

At present that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the ascendant strain, telling the departure is more challenging than always. Fifty-fifty if you accept been vaccinated and boosted, y'all can still get symptoms, merely they are probable to be mild to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the adventure of astringent symptoms that tin can be life-threatening is nonetheless substantial.

At the current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they take COVID. If possible, adjust to go tested or do a dwelling examination. If the test is positive, you should isolate at home for five days. If you lot had a negative test when symptoms started, it's notwithstanding best to isolate at abode for two to three more days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That's considering there is a chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means you can still have COVID with a negative exam.) Consider testing once again earlier going out. In one case you are fix to leave home, continue to consistently wear a mask for at least v more days.

COVID-19 Testing

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

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

If y'all are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than six months agone and have not been additional, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than two months agone and have non been additional, yous should stay domicile for five days and habiliment a mask around others for an additional five days. If y'all tin can't quarantine, vesture a mask around others for x days. Get tested for COVID on day v, if possible. If yous develop symptoms at any fourth dimension, get tested and isolate at dwelling house.

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

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which ways that they can be used to determine whether you currently have an agile coronavirus infection. However, there are important differences between these ii types of tests.

PCR tests detect the presence of the virus'due south genetic material using a technique called contrary 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 DNA is so amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral DNA are made, in order to produce a measurable result. The accuracy of whatever diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly, when during the course of illness the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate weather condition while it was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests notice specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to every bit rapid diagnostic tests because it tin take less than an hour to get the exam results. Positive antigen examination results are highly specific, meaning that if you examination positive you are very likely to be infected. However, there is a higher chance of fake negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative issue cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you have a negative effect on an antigen test, your doc may lodge a PCR test or a second rapid antigen test to confirm the outcome.

Information technology may be helpful to think of a COVID antigen test as you lot would retrieve of a rapid strep test or a rapid influenza test. A positive effect for whatever of these tests is likely to exist accurate, and allows diagnosis and handling to begin quickly, while a negative issue frequently results in further testing to ostend or overturn the initial result.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the U.s.. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, too called rapid diagnostic tests, detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen examination results may come back in every bit little as xv to 45 minutes; you may wait several days for PCR test results.

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

Results may besides be afflicted by the timing of the test. For example, if you lot are tested on the day you were infected, your test result is well-nigh guaranteed to come back negative, because in that location are not yet enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to discover. The take a chance of getting a simulated negative examination result decreases if you are tested a few days afterwards you were infected, or a few days later on you lot develop symptoms.

By and large speaking, if a exam result comes back positive, it is almost sure that the person is infected.

A negative test result is less definite. There is a higher chance of imitation negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may be even more than likely to miss the Omicron variant. If y'all take a negative event on an antigen test, your doctor may gild a PCR examination or recommend a second rapid antigen examination to ostend the consequence.

If you feel COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR examination result, in that location is no reason to repeat the test unless your symptoms go worse. If your symptoms do worsen, call your doctor or local or state healthcare department for guidance on farther testing. You should also cocky-isolate at home. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

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

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

Your torso takes ane to three weeks afterwards 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-nineteen

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 against a viral or bacterial infection, a healthy immune organisation makes antibodies against one or more components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-19 coronavirus contains ribonucleic acrid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has fasten proteins on the outer surface that tin can latch on to certain man cells. Once inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and as well turns on the product of proteins, both of which let the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, specially to the lungs.

While the allowed system could potentially answer to unlike parts of the virus, information technology's the spike proteins that get the about attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins as a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

There are ii main categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike poly peptide or a different poly peptide known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies tin can be detected with claret tests starting about ane 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 time after an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Bounden antibodies help fight the infection, but they might non offer protection against getting reinfected in the hereafter. It depends on whether they are as well neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus's spike poly peptide, making it more difficult for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more 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-19 patients.

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

The allowed organisation 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 it is only temporary. There have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-xix. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-19, recovered, then became infected once again.

This has been especially true as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-xix variants. At that place was a ascension in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increase in the reinfection charge per unit due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has nearly fifty mutations, including more than 30 mutations on the fasten poly peptide, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize after previous infection. Because of this, Omicron is more than capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

We take learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural immune response, even in those who have been previously infected, and further reduces the gamble of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are besides more mutual with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well confronting astringent illness.

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

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How soon after I'k infected with the new coronavirus will I showtime to exist contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation period) is idea to be 2 to fourteen days. Symptoms typically appeared within five days for early variants, and within 4 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 exist virtually infectious early in the form of their infection. With Omicron, most transmission occurs during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards.

Wearing masks, especially indoors, can aid 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 have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on to take symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we take seen that people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-nineteen may be contagious 48 hours before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more than likely to spread the illness, considering they are unlikely to be isolating and may non prefer behaviors designed to prevent spread.

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

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

For how long later I am infected will I continue to exist contagious? At what point in my illness will I be about contagious?

People are thought to be nearly contagious early in the grade of their illness. With Omicron, almost 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 day afterwards COVID symptoms brainstorm, about people will no longer be contagious, as 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 10 days after testing are likewise probably no longer contagious.

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

• isolate at home for five days
• if yous accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after 5 days, y'all tin discontinue isolation and leave your home
• continue to clothing a mask around others for five boosted days.

If you lot have a fever, continue to isolate at domicile until you 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 five days, regardless of their vaccination status.

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

Y'all should take many of the same precautions equally yous would if you were caring for someone with the flu:

• Stay in another room or exist separated from the person as much as possible. Employ a carve up sleeping accommodation and bathroom, if available.
• Make certain that shared spaces in the domicile accept skillful air menstruation. If possible, open a window.
• Launder your hands oft with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or utilize an alcohol-based manus sanitizer that contains sixty to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Use soap and h2o if your hands are visibly dirty.
• Avert touching your optics, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• You and the person should vesture a face mask if you are in the same room.
• Wear a disposable face mask and gloves when you affect or take contact with the person's blood, stool, or torso fluids, such every bit saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
  • Throw out disposable face masks and gloves after using them. Exercise not reuse.
  • First remove and throw abroad gloves. So, immediately clean your easily with lather and water or alcohol-based paw sanitizer. Next, remove and throw away the face up mask, and immediately clean your hands once again with soap and water or alcohol-based manus sanitizer.
• Practice not share household items such every bit 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.
• Make clean all "high-touch" surfaces, such equally counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every mean solar day. As well, clean any surfaces that may take blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe.
  • Launder laundry thoroughly.
  • Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that accept blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
• Vesture dispensable gloves while treatment soiled items and proceed soiled items abroad from your body. Make clean your hands immediately after removing your gloves.
• Place all used disposable gloves, confront masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste. Clean your easily (with soap and water or an alcohol-based mitt sanitizer) immediately later on handling these items.

Tin can people infect pets with the COVID-nineteen virus?

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

If you go sick with COVID-19, it'south all-time to restrict contact with your pets, merely like y'all would around other people. This means you should forgo petting, snuggling, existence kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until you are feeling better. When possible, have another member of your household care for your pets while you are sick. If you must intendance for your pet while you are sick, wash your easily earlier and after you interact with your pets and wear a face up mask.

At present, information technology is considered unlikely that pets can spread the COVID-19 virus to humans. Even so, pets can spread other infections that cause illness, includingE. coli and Salmonella, so wash your hands thoroughly with soap and h2o after interacting with your creature companions.

Long Term Furnishings of COVID-nineteen

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

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

1 report, published inThe BMJ, nerveless laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health program 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 group that was collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for 6 months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded whatsoever new health complications.

They found that xiv% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical result during the following half-dozen months; this was almost 5% higher than the pre-pandemic command group, a significant deviation. New medical problems affected a range of body systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal center rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney bug. Increased run a risk was seen in younger, previously healthy people, simply was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Another study, published inNature, compared the wellness records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran'south Health Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-ii only were never hospitalized, to those of virtually five million other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For 6 months following the offset 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 nevertheless another 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 accept not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months afterward first experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience 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 called postal service-COVID-nineteen syndrome or mail-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is non unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme affliction, can cause like long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may help predict who will become a long hauler. One study plant that COVID-xix patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their first week of illness were significantly more probable 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 illness also increased the chances of condign a long hauler, as did increasing age and higher body mass alphabetize (BMI).

Though these factors may increase the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone can become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially have balmy to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and do not require hospitalization. Previously good for you young adults, non just older adults with coexisting medical atmospheric condition, are also experiencing post-COVID-xix syndrome.

Symptoms of mail service-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-xix itself, can vary widely. Some of the more mutual lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, brain fog, shortness of breath, chills, body ache, headache, joint pain, breast pain, cough, and lingering loss of taste or odor. Many long haulers report cognitive dysfunction or memory loss that affects their day-to-day ability to do things similar make decisions, have conversations, follow instructions, and drive. The common 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 experience at to the lowest degree one symptom six months afterwards their diagnosis.

There'south already some speculation, but no definite answers, about what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers suspect that SARS-CoV-ii infection triggers long-lasting changes in the allowed arrangement. Others suggest that it triggers autonomic nervous system dysregulation, which can bear on heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating, among other things.

Blog posts:

• Could COVID-nineteen infection exist responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
• What is COVID-nineteen encephalon fog — and how can you clear it?
• The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
• The hidden long-term cerebral effects of COVID
• Which test is best for COVID-19?
• Allergies? Common cold? Flu? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

Yous think y'all've got COVID-xix. Here'southward what y'all need to do (recorded 4/x/20)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ Tv set in Boston and an teacher at Harvard Medical School, how nosotros should react when nosotros starting time to experience a dry coughing or perhaps spike a fever. Who do y'all phone call? How do you protect your family unit? When does it make sense to motility toward an emergency section, and how should we set up? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing's online course series, and an urgent care physician at Mass General Infirmary.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Eye 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

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