How to Survive If You (or Someone in Your Home) Are Infected
Original image from Edward Jenner on Pexels.
1. Remain calm.
Most cases of the COVID-19 virus are mild, and stress and anxiety can negatively affect your immune response.
2. Call your doctor.
There’s a very broad range of symptoms associated with virus infection. Even without testing, if you or someone sharing your living space exhibits any of the current symptoms of COVID-19 you should contact your doctor immediately. In most cases without respiratory distress or other severe symptoms, you will be advised to self-quarantine. If you live alone, you don’t need to wear a mask. If you don’t, cover nose and mouth to reduce the spread of the virus when you leave the room.
3. Isolate yourself.
The infected person should stay in one room (a bedroom in most cases) and not move throughout the home/apartment for at least ten days from when symptoms first appear. Ideally, the bathroom should not be shared. If this proves impossible, the bathroom should be cleaned thoroughly and regularly (see below). If you are infected and live with a vulnerable person, seek guidance from a physician on possible off-site quarantine.
4. Treat yourself as if you have the flu.
Stay hydrated, take over-the-counter fever reducers, and rest. Cough or sneeze into tissues and throw them away.
5. Eat in quarantine.
Meals should be brought to the isolated patient and eaten within the confines of the quarantine zone. Both patient and helper should be masked when in close contact. Room door should be kept closed as much as possible.
6. Clean and sanitize regularly.
All high touch surfaces (tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks) should be cleaned with a disinfecting product (here’s a list) at least once per day, and more often if the patient is using a shared bathroom.
7. Stay in contact with your doctor.
Check in regularly to report progress, and immediately if your condition worsens.
8. Know when it’s OK to get back to normal.
The CDC’s recovery guidelines for those who have not been tested are complex. In general, plan for ten days of isolation from onset of symptoms, even if you feel better and have no fever or other indications of illness.