What to Do If You Are Sick With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

What to Do If You Are Sick With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

 If you develop a fever and symptoms of respiratory illness, such as cough or shortness of breath, within 14 days after travel from China, you should call ahead to a healthcare professional and mention your recent travel or close contact. If you have had close contact2 with someone showing these symptoms who has recently traveled from this area, you should call ahead to a healthcare professional and mention your close contact and their recent travel. Your healthcare professional will work with your state’s public health department and CDC to determine if you need to be tested for COVID-19.

 Steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 if you are sick

 If you are sick with COVID-19 or suspect you are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, follow the steps below to help prevent the disease from spreading to people in your home and community.

 Stay home except to get medical care:

 You should restrict activities outside your home, except for getting medical care. Do not go to work, school, or public areas. Avoid using public transportation, ride-sharing, or taxis.

 Separate yourself from other people and animals in your home:

 People: As much as possible, you should stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. Also, you should use a separate bathroom, if available.

 Animals: You should restrict contact with pets and other animals while you are sick with COVID-19, just like you would around other people. Although there have not been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with COVID-19, it is still recommended that people sick with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. When possible, have another member of your household care for your animals while you are sick. If you are sick with COVID-19, avoid contact with your pet, including petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food. If you must care for your pet or be around animals while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with pets and wear a facemask.

 Call ahead before visiting your doctor:

 If you have a medical appointment, call the healthcare provider and tell them that you have or may have COVID-19. This will help the healthcare provider’s office take steps to keep other people from getting infected or exposed.

 Wear a facemask:

 You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) or pets and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then people who live with you should not stay in the same room with you, or they should wear a facemask if they enter your room.

 Cover your coughs and sneezes:

 Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw used tissues in a lined trash can; immediately wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Soap and water should be used preferentially if hands are visibly dirty.

 Clean your hands often:

 Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Soap and water should be used preferentially if hands are visibly dirty. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

 Avoid sharing personal household items:

 You should not share dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, or bedding with other people or pets in your home. After using these items, they should be washed thoroughly with soap and water.

 Clean all “high-touch” surfaces every day

High touch surfaces include counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables. Also, clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe, according to the label instructions. Labels contain instructions for safe and effective use of the cleaning product including precautions you should take when applying the product, such as wearing gloves and making sure you have good ventilation during use of the product

How to prevent Coronavirus (Covid-19) infection in public places?

How to prevent Coronavirus (Covid-19) infection in public places?

During an epidemic outbreak, try to avoid visits to public spaces, especially places with large crowds and poor ventilation like cinemas. Wear a face mask if visits to public spaces are required. Cough or sneeze into tissues completely covering the nose and mouth. Seal used tissues in a plastic bag before discarding immediately in a closed bin labeled “residual waste” or “medical waste” to prevent the virus from spreading. Operators of public spaces should maintain a hygienic indoor environment, ensure regular ventilation and sterilization every day.

What lifestyle is recommended amid the outbreak of COVID-19?

What lifestyle is recommended amid the outbreak of COVID-19?

 (1) Eat high-protein foods daily including fish, meat, eggs, milk, legumes, and nuts, keep an adequate intake based on the daily diet. Do not eat wild animal meats.

 (2) Eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day, and increase the intake based on the daily diet.

 (3) Drink no less than 1500 mL of water per day.

 (4) Have a varied, diverse diet of different types, colors, and sources. Eat more than 20 kinds of food every day. Eat a balanced diet of animal- and plant-based foods.

 (5) Ensure enough intake of nutrition based on the regular diet.

 (6) Undernourished, elderly people and patients with chronic wasting diseases are recommended to supplement with commercial enteral nutrition solutions (foods for special medical purposes), and supplement no less than an extra 2100 kJ daily (500 kcal).

 (7) Do not fast or go on a diet during an epidemic of COVID-19.

 (8) Ensure regular rest and a minimum of 7 hours of sleep each day.

 (9) Start a personal exercise regimen with no less than 1 hour of exercise per day. Do not participate in group exercises.

 (10) During an epidemic of COVID-19, it is recommended to supplement with multi-vitamins, minerals, and deep-sea fish oi

What should I do amid a close contact with a COVID-19 patient?

Monitoring close contacts: All persons (including medical professionals) who may have been in contact with a suspected case should have a 14-day medical observation. The observation starts from the last day of contact with the patient. Seek medical help as soon as you experience any symptoms, especially fever, respiratory symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, or diarrhea. During the observation, contacts should keep in touch with medical professionals.

 Medical professionals should inform the contacts in advance, if symptoms present, where they can seek medical help, the most suggested transportation, when and where to enter a designated hospital, and what infection control measures to take. Specific instructions are as follows:

 (1) Notify the hospital in advance and inform them that contact with symptoms is going to the hospital.
 (2) Wear a surgical mask on the way to the hospital.

 (3) Avoid taking public transportation to the hospital. Call an ambulance or use a private vehicle, and try to keep the windows open on the road.

 (4) Close contacts of patients should maintain respiratory hygiene at all time and wash their hands frequently. Stay far away from other people (> 1 m) while standing or sitting on the road to or at the hospital.

 (5) Contacts of patients and their caregivers should wash their hands properly.

 (6) Any surfaces contaminated with respiratory secretions or bodily fluids on the way to the hospital should be cleaned and disinfected with ordinary household disinfectants containing diluted bleach.

Does handwashing with soap and clean water work against coronaviruses?

Does handwashing with soap and clean water work against coronaviruses?

 Yes, it does. Frequent hand washing is one of the effective measures to prevent viral infection such as rhinovirus and coronavirus. Rubbing hands with soap and water can effectively remove dirt and microorganisms on the skin, and rinsing out the soap under running water can also relieve irritation to the skin. Therefore, authoritative organizations such as the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all recommend washing hands thoroughly with soap and running water.

How to wash your hands correctly?

 Step 1: Apply soap to hands and scrub palm to palm with fingers interlaced.
 Step 2: Put one palm on the back of another hand and scrub your fingers. Change hands.
 Step 3: Scrub between your fingers.
 Step 4: Rub the back of your fingers against your palms. Do the same with the other hand.
 Step 5: Scrub your thumb using the other hand. Do the same with the other thumb.
 Step 6: Rub the tips of your fingers on the palm of the other hand
 Step 7: Rub the wrist of one hand with the other hand while rotating it. Do the same with the other hand.
 In each of the above steps, do each step no fewer than 5 times, and finally, rinse your hands under running water.

How to clean hands if clean water is not available?

 You can clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Coronaviruses are not resistant to acid or alkali but are sensitive to organic solvents and disinfectants. 75% alcohol can inactivate the virus, so alcohol-containing disinfection products of an absolute (100%) concentration can be used as an alternative to washing hands with soap and running water

What are the features of masks for different purposes?

 Major types of masks: N95/KN95 respirators, surgical face masks, and cotton face masks.

 N95/KN95 respirators can filter 95% of particles with an aerodynamic diameter greater than or equal to 0.3 μm, and block viruses. They can help prevent airborne diseases.

 Disposable surgical face masks have 3 layers. The outer layer is hydrophobic non-woven layer that prevents droplets from entering the mask; the middle layer has a filter to block 90% of particles with a diameter greater than 5μm; and the inner layer in contact with the nose and mouth absorbs moisture. They are typically for sterile medical operations and be used to prevent airborne diseases.

 Cotton face masks are heavy, stuffy, and do not fit closely to the face, and thus not effective against viruses

How to keep yourself away from the novel coronavirus?

How to keep yourself away from the novel coronavirus?

 (1) 2019-nCoV is mainly transmitted by droplets and contacts, therefore medical surgical masks must be worn properly.

 (2) When sneezing or coughing, do not cover nose and mouth with bare hands but use a tissue or a mask instead.

 (3) Wash hands properly and frequently. Even if there are viruses present on hands, washing hands can block the viruses from entering respiratory tract through nose or mouth.

 (4) Boost your immunity, and avoid going to crowded and enclosed places. Exercise more and have a regular sleep schedule. Boosting your immunity is the most important way to avoid being infected.

 (5) Be sure to wear the mask always! Just in case you come in contact with an infected person, wearing a mask can prevent you from inhaling virus-carrying droplets directly.

Can a mask block such small coronaviruses?

 The masks are effective. Because the purpose of wearing the mask is to block the ‘carrier’ by which the virus is transmitted, rather than directly blocking the viruses. Common routes for transmission of respiratory viruses include close contact over a short distance and aerosol transmission over a long distance. Aerosols which people usually come in contact with refer to respiratory droplets from patients. Wearing a mask properly can effectively block respiratory droplets and therefore prevent the virus from directly entering the body.

 Please be reminded that it is not necessary to wear a KN95 or N95 respirator. Regular surgical masks can block most virus-carrying droplets from entering the respiratory tract.

What are the clinical criteria for quarantine release and discharge?

(1) The condition of the patient is stable and fever has subsided.

 (2) Lung imaging shows a significant improvement with no sign of organ dysfunction.

 (3) The patient has had stable breathing, clear consciousness, unimpaired speech, normal diet and body temperature for more than 3 days. Respiratory symptoms have improved significantly, and two consecutive tests for respiratory pathogenic nucleic acid have been negative (at least one day in-between tests).

How to treat COVID-19?

How to treat COVID-19?

 (1) Put patients to bed rest, provide with supportive care, maintain good hydration and electrolyte balance, internal homeostatis, and closely monitor vital signs and oxygen saturation.

 (2) Monitor routine blood and urine test results, C-reactive protein (CRP), biochemical indicators (liver enzyme, myocardial enzyme, renal function, etc.), and coagulation function accordingly. Perform an arterial blood gas analysis when needed, and regularly review chest X-ray images.

 (3) According to the changes in oxygen saturation, provide timely effective oxygen therapy, including nasal catheter, oxygen mask, transnasal high-flow oxygen therapy, and noninvasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, etc.

 (4) Antiviral therapy: There are currently no antiviral drugs with good efficacy.

 (5) Apply antibacterial drug treatment: strengthen bacteriological monitoring, and start antibacterial treatment when there is evidence of secondary bacterial infect


How to choose a medical institution for treatment?

Isolation and treatment should be performed in a hospital with proper conditions for isolation and protection. Critical cases should be admitted to an ICU as soon as possible.

Are there any drugs or vaccines against COVID-19?

 At present, there are no specific antiviral treatments against COVID-19. Patients generally receive supportive care to relieve symptoms. Avoid irresponsible or inappropriate antimicrobial treatment, especially in combination with broad-spectrum antimicrobials.
 There is currently no vaccine against the new disease. Developing a new vaccine may take a whil

What should I do if I am possibly infected with COVID-19?

What should I do if I am possibly infected with COVID-19?

 Promptly go to the local designated medical institution for evaluation, diagnosis and treatment. When a seeking medical attention for a possible infection of 2019-nCoV, you should inform your doctor about your recent travel and residence history, especially if you’ve been to the epidemic areas recently, and any history of contact with pneumonia patients or suspected 2019-nCoV cases, and animals. It is extra important to note that surgical masks should be worn throughout the visit to protect yourself and others

New story in Health from Time: Limited Access to Clean Water Among India’s Poor Spawns Coronavirus Concerns

(NEW DELHI) — Dharam Singh Rajput can’t afford to buy hand sanitizer, which could help ward off transmission of the coronavirus in his community.
The Rajput family could opt for something more basic — soap and water — to achieve hand hygiene. But sometimes there is no clean running water in their neighborhood, which sits next to open sewage canals and mounds of garbage in the heart of New Delhi, India’s capital. “The kind of water we have access to has the potential to cause more diseases instead of warding off the virus if we use it to wash our hands,” Rajput said.

Experts say keeping hands clean is one of the easiest and best ways to prevent transmission of the new coronavirus, in addition to social distancing. But for India’s homeless and urban poor who live in thousands of slums across major cities and towns, maintaining good hygiene can be nearly impossible.
About 160 million — more than the population of Russia — of India’s 1.3 billion people don’t have access to clean water. That could leave impoverished Indians like Rajput and his family at risk during the virus outbreak.
Read more: India Is the World’s Second-Most Populous Country. Can It Handle the Coronavirus Outbreak?
“It could prove disastrous for people who don’t have access to clean water,” said Samrat Basak, the director of the World Resource Institute’s Urban Water Program in India. With India being the world’s second-most populous country, and having weak health care facilities and growing concerns that there may be an undetected communal spread of the virus, the risks associated with the lack of clean water aren’t being overstated. UNICEF said last week that almost 20% of urban Indians do not have facilities with water and soap at home.
What could make things worse, experts say, is that social distancing is nearly impossible in many Indian cities that are among the world’s most densely populated areas. So far, the government has apparently been able to keep a lid on community transmission of the virus. Authorities have confirmed 147 cases and three deaths, all linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad.
While the coronavirus can be deadly, particularly for the elderly and people with other health problems, for most people it causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. Some feel no symptoms at all and the vast majority of people recover.
India’s government has made fervent appeals to the public to practice social distancing and good hand hygiene. India also was one of the first countries to essentially shut its borders and deny entry to all but a select few foreigners. But in a country as big as India, community transmission is all but inevitable, experts say.
“Clean water is the first line of defense,” said V.K. Madhavan, India chief executive at WaterAid, a global advocacy group for water and sanitation. “If there is no access to clean water, the situation could worsen.”
Read more: Mapping the Spread of the Coronavirus Outbreak Around the U.S. and the World
India’s clean water problem isn’t new. Hundreds of thousands of people wait in line every day to fill buckets from government water trucks. Hospitals and schools struggle with clean water supplies. People are forced to wash utensils and clothes in dirty water.
About 600 million Indians face acute water shortages, according to government think tank NITI Aayog.
The water crisis hits the poor particularly hard since wealthy people can pay for water from private sources that those living in slums can’t afford. The mortality rate due to inadequate or unsafe water is also high. About 200,000 people die each year in India from diseases related to unclean water. Insufficient water also leads to food insecurity.
“When clean drinking water runs out, people will have no choice but to rely on unsafe water,” said Dr. Anant Bhan, a global health researcher. “It could expose India’s huge population to extreme vulnerability.”
Government promises to provide clean water to many Indians have so far failed despite efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that have been internationally lauded.
“Access to clean water is a basic human right,” said Madhavan. “No one should fear losing their life because they couldn’t practice the first line of defense, which is hand washing.”

About Human Coronavirus: History, Symptoms and Treatment

What is Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals, including humans, and birds. In humans, the virus causes respiratory infections which are typically mild but, in rare cases, can be lethal. In cows and pigs, they may cause diarrhea, while in chickens it can cause an upper respiratory disease. There are no vaccines or antiviral drugs that are approved for prevention or treatment.

History of Coronavirus 

Coronaviruses were discovered in the 1960s; the earliest ones discovered were infectious bronchitis virus in chickens and two viruses from the nasal cavities of human patients with the common cold that were subsequently named human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43.


On 31 December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, officially designated as 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization, was reported in Wuhan, China, as responsible for the 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. By 24 January 2020, 25 deaths have been reported and 547 confirmed cases.

Types of Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. There are four main sub-groupings of coronaviruses, known as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.

1. 229E (alpha coronavirus)
2. NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
3. OC43 (beta coronavirus)
4. HKU1 (beta coronavirus)

What causes coronavirus in humans?

The symptoms of most coronaviruses are similar to any other upper respiratory infection, including runny nose, coughing, sore throat, and sometimes a fever. 

How is coronavirus diagnosed?

Laboratory tests on respiratory specimens and serum (part of your blood) to detect human coronaviruses. 

Symptoms of Coronavirus?

Common human coronaviruses, including types 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1, usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. Most people get infected with these viruses at some point in their lives. These illnesses usually only last for a short amount of time. Symptoms may include

• runny nose
• headache
• cough
• sore throat
• fever

Transmission of Coronavirus? 

Human coronaviruses most commonly spread from an infected person to others through

the air by coughing and sneezing close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands touching an object or surface with the virus on it, then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes before washing your hands rarely, fecal contamination

Treatment and Vaccine for coronavirus?

There are no specific treatments for illnesses caused by human coronaviruses. Most people with common human coronavirus illness will recover on their own. However, you can do some things to relieve your symptoms