On the new day of the novel coronavirus, a dry cough is no longer just a dry cough. Your misbehaving allergies could be to blame, but maybe this new pathogen has settled in your body. How to know
Here are nine steps recommended by the Ohio Department of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get information about your health if you feel sick in the next few weeks or months.
Take a deep, cleansing breath. When you are overwhelmed, do the best you can. The most important thing is that you are fine. If you develop COVID-19, the upper respiratory disease that results from infection with the novel coronavirus, you will most likely recover. Be quiet.
Take inventory of symptoms. Dry cough is one. Are you short of breath too? Do you have a fever? The normal body temperature is 98.6 Fahrenheit, and anything above 100 F is considered a fever. These symptoms mean that you are sick with something.
Other flu-like symptoms of COVID-19 include chills, body aches, sore throats, headaches, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and runny nose.
The Ohio Department of Health says “emergency warning signs” for COVID-19 in adults include difficulty breathing, persistent chest pain or pressure, confusion, or the inability to wake up or blue your lips or face.
Call your doctor right away. Don’t go to the nearest emergency room unless you have critical problems (more on that later). Call your usual doctor before seeking treatment. If you have a scheduled appointment soon, call the doctor’s office to report that you have symptoms of COVID-19. The doctor’s staff can protect themselves and others in the office from infection.
If you don’t have a relationship with a family doctor, contact your local health department. If you are privately insured, your network operator keeps a list of general practitioners in its network.
Only leave your home on the order of the doctor. While sick, stay home from work and anywhere unless you visit your doctor or be directed to report to a hospital. For 80% of people infected with the novel coronavirus, the most serious result is a mild cold. However, if you have to leave your house, it is a good idea to wear a face mask at this point so that you don’t exhale droplets containing the virus and infect others.
Tell your doctor everything. Report on COVID-19 trips or areas of widespread or community contagion. Report all contacts with people who later tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The doctor will most likely test you for other viruses like the flu before testing you for COVID-19.
Let yourself be tested – if and when one is available. There are still too few test kits to measure total population coverage that researchers can use to track how the novel coronavirus is spreading. Currently, Ohio can only test about 1,000 people, and the sick are tested first. More testing is taking place in the making of pipelines, and more laboratories are processing results. But until then you can be fine.
You will need a doctor’s order to get the novel coronavirus test. If your symptoms are mild, your doctor may send you home to treat symptoms without a test. If you don’t feel better in a few days, talk to your doctor again, who may then send you to the hospital.
To be tested and also to go into isolation. To be more specific, stay in one room of your home with at most one person looking after you, and use a separate bathroom if you can. Also, limit your contacts with people you live with. No trips outside of the house except to the doctor. Avoid public transportation, carpooling, or taxis.
The test gives you a name for your condition. But there is no treatment and no cure for COVID-19. Most people will endure the couch like the flu. The health authorities urge people to step up disinfection in the home, especially wherever there is a sick person.
In the 20 percent of cases that end up in the hospital, most recover as well. Still, the mortality for COVID-19 is estimated to be around 2%, much higher than for the flu.
Participate in public health. The local health department will be in touch with people who have been tested for the novel coronavirus or are developing COVID-19. Healthcare workers will ask about anyone you’ve come in contact with so they can follow up.
Protect your fur children. The CDC recommends limiting contact with pets and other animals while you have COVID-19. Although no one has reported that COVID-19 was passed on to a pet, it is recommended that people infected with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus.
For answers to your COVID-19 questions, please call 1-833-427-5634.
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