COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus. There is neither a cure nor a reliable vaccine for the disease. If you have a weak immune system, the disease can be fatal. However, through symptomatic treatments, your doctor can help reduce its effects.
Find out more about the symptoms, spread, diagnosis, and prevention to help you reduce infection and know how to respond if you contract the disease in this blog.
The coronavirus attacks your respiratory system and causes illness such as common cold and sometimes blockage of your bronchioles. The COVID-19 pandemic has its roots in Wuhan, China, where the first cases were reported in December 2019.
Signs and Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of COVID-19 illness might not be visible during the first 14 days after contracting the disease. However, the symptoms can range from mild to showing signs of pneumonia. Depending on how strong your immune system is, you might recover quickly or get complications easily.
Some of the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 include:
- Fever with body temperatures more than 37.5 degree Celsius
- Dry coughs
- Sore throat
- Shortness of breath
After the first 14 days upon contracting the coronavirus, you might experience the symptoms such as a runny nose, headaches, nausea, muscle or joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea. If you have the COVID-19 illness, you might experience fatigue, appetite loss, loss of sense of smell, and altered taste.
If you have the above symptoms, it is advisable to visit the nearest urgent care facility and get a test to confirm the signs. The disease is communicable. Therefore, when going to the urgent care clinic near you, you should follow guidelines that the Center for Disease Control provides to prevent infecting others.
How Does the Coronavirus Spread?
The Coronavirus spreads from person to another in the following ways:
- Close contact with an infected person, especially 48 hours after they contract the virus
- Contact with nasal and oral fluids of an infected person when they cough or sneeze
- Coming into contact with surfaces that have droplets from an infected person.
Risk Factors
Everyone can contract COVID-19 disease, despite gender or age. However, some factors put you at high risk of contracting the disease. Below are the several risk factors of contracting COVID-19:
- Travelers, especially those who travel outside the country
- Those who have close contact with an infected person
- People living in group residential settings
- Persons in correctional facilities
If you are aged over 70 years, you might be at risk of developing complications after contracting the virus. Also, if you have any chronic illnesses that compromise your immune system, you can be at risk of further complications. If you have conditions that compromise your immune system, you can notify your doctor to help them create the best control plan.
Prevention and Control of COVID-19
At our urgent care in San Antonio, we recommend you take some precautionary measures to prevent contracting or spreading the coronavirus. Some of the measures we recommend at Alamo City Urgent Care to prevent the spread include:
- Wearing masks that are recommended by the CDC
- Wash your hands regularly using running water or and soap or alcohol-based hand sanitizers
- Avoid close contact with people, especially those that are showing signs of the COVID-19 disease
- Cover coughs and sneezes using your elbow
- Clean and disinfect surfaces regularly to eliminate the virus deposits on them
You can also monitor your health daily to ensure you don’t show signs of COVID-19. When you show the signs of COVID-19, you can visit an emergency room for tests and treatments. If you don’t know an emergency room, you can search “urgent care near me.”
Coronavirus Rapid Test
To confirm the symptoms of the COVID-19 disease, you can consider an urgent care rapid COVID-19 test.
A coronavirus rapid test identifies your body’s response to the virus and gives qualitative yes or no results in 10 minutes. The rapid COVID-19 test is a simple procedure that only requires a finger-prick blood sample for analysis. Unlike a lab test that requires time to process, the rapid test only requires a few minutes to confirm a COVID-19 infection.
If you need the rapid test, you can visit an urgent care clinic near you or search “COVID-19 testing near me.”
