COVID-19: What You Need to Know

COVID-19 is the name of the infectious disease that is caused by a virus called the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The virus targets the lungs and respiratory system. Symptoms of COVID-19 usually present as mild or moderate symptoms such as a fever, fatigue, muscle aches, coughing, sore throat, congestion, abdominal pain or loss of taste or smell. However, some individuals can experience more severe symptoms such as severe shortness of breath in which case, they would require medical attention.

COVID-19 is a contagious disease and can transmit from one person to another through close direct and indirect contacts. Direct contacts would include hugging or kissing someone who may be infected or through coughing, sneezing or talking in very close proximity. You can also get COVID-19 if you touch a contaminated surface and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth. To reduce transmission, it’s important to practice physical distancing and to practice good hand hygiene. If you feel like you may have COVID-19 or have had close contact with someone, you can easily get yourself tested for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test which will give you results in 15 minutes or a more accurate PCR test which takes 24-48 hours.

There are different steps that you can take to protect yourself and people around you from getting sick with COVID-19. As the COVID-19 virus targets our lungs, wearing a mask properly while covering the mouth and the nose can protect our airways from viral particles that can be released as someone who is infected is talking, coughing or sneezing. Additionally, regularly washing your hands with a hand sanitizer or with soap and water can help to remove any viral particles that may be on your hands from contaminated surfaces. Disinfecting commonly used surfaces can also be helpful in keeping your spaces clean and safe against the virus. Finally, you can also take the COVID-19 vaccine which will allow your body to build an immune response against the virus so that you can be protected against the disease.

The COVID-19 vaccine encourages our body’s natural immune system to create a response towards the proteins that are found on the surface of the COVID-19 causing virus. By doing so, it prepares our body to be able to recognize the virus before it has a chance to infect our cells and to clear up the virus from our systems before getting severely sick. If you are vaccinated, there is a possibility that you may still get infected with COVID-19. However, the vaccine will prompt our immune response to do its best to prevent severe symptoms and you may likely experience mild symptoms that last for a few days similar to the flu.

Are you feeling symptoms of COVID-19 or have tested positive for COVID-19, please do not panic! It is important that you take this time to take a lot of rest and have fluids while monitoring your symptoms. At this time, please self-isolate yourself and do not interact with another individual until the infection has cleared, this usually takes about 10 days. You may also want to inform people whom you have had close contact with right before feeling sick so they can also self-isolate and get tested. If your symptoms are getting worse and you are having trouble breathing, please go to an emergency room at a hospital to get appropriate medical attention.