Let’s start by noting that the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is still a new disease that we are continuing to learn about. However, with some basic information about the disease, you can avoid and manage it and seek medical attention in time before things go haywire.
According to WHO, there is a steady spread of infections of coronavirus day by day. This is contributed to more by the lack of people individually taking the right precautions of maintaining a social distance and sanitizing often.
It’s advisable to get covid testing in Katy to know our status for early treatment. During its early stages, the disease and its symptoms are quite manageable.
So, what are the stages of COVID-19 symptoms?
Incubation Stage
The incubation stage of any disease is the duration between when one is infected and when symptoms start to surface. Coronavirus, however, has a challenge when it comes to dealing with the incubation stage symptoms:
- It’s almost impossible to know when someone was infected, especially if they receive the disease in several “doses.”
- There is a significant amount of time before someone develops the symptoms after infection.
- Some countries only carry out tests on people in severe stages of the infection. It’s also not known whether there is a difference in the incubation period for people in critical, severe, average, and mild infection stages.
- There is a notion that certain people do not develop symptoms. They are asymptomatic, so there are no symptoms to monitor in them.
However, a study in provinces out of the Wuhan province where identifying a single cause of the infection was possible indicated that:
- The median incubation period for the virus was 5.1 days. It means half of the people get symptoms before this duration and half after.
- 97.5% of people indicating symptoms of coronavirus day by day get them within 11.5 days.
Which Symptoms Come First?
Covid-19 symptoms are known to appear between the first two days and 14 days after exposure. This is except for asymptomatic individuals. During and shortly after the incubation period, signs and symptoms commonly observed include
- Fever
- Dry Cough
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Sore throat
- Headache
- Pain in the muscles and joints
- Coughing up blood
- Reddening of the eye
These are results based on 56,000 confirmed infections from a WHO report.
This is not an all-inclusive list as there are other commonly reported symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes. The symptoms are similar in children and adults.
Depending on your body’s immunity, some people exhibit more severe symptoms of the virus, such as pneumonia and far worse shortness of breath.
Emergency Symptoms
Some Covid-19 symptoms are regarded as lethal, and it’s advisable to immediately seek urgent care near you in case you exhibit any of the following:
- Trouble breathing
- Continued pain and pressure in the chest
- Blue lips and face
- Sudden confusion
Risk Factors
The risk and severity of the disease increase with age. People having severe chronic infections are also at greater risks of suffering serious covid-19 illness. Below is a list of medical conditions that increase the severity of covid-19.
- Serious cardiovascular diseases like heart failure
- Cancer
- Type II Diabetes
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Chronic Kidney Stones
- Sickle cell disease
- Frail immune system due to occasional organ transplant
- Pregnancy
Other conditions that cause serious illness include Asthma, Liver disease, chronic lung infection, brain conditions, HIV, Hypertension, and Type 1 Diabetes.
How Long Do Coronavirus Symptoms Last?
You can minimize the symptoms’ intensity if you visit the Katy urgent care center as soon as you start noticing the symptoms.
Being the almost immediate symptom of covid-19 illness, fever will last for a few days and improve in about a week. This is the minimum time at which you are allowed to leave self-isolation. If the fever persists past seven days, you have to stay in isolation.
Coughing can last a couple of weeks, and during this time, you should be very careful on social distancing so you don’t infect others.
People experiencing shortness of breath are likely to experience it up to between 7 – 10 days. Note that shortness of breath is a lethal symptom that can develop swiftly and worsen in several minutes.
Seeing a Doctor
You need to see a doctor if you exhibit the above-mentioned emergency symptoms.
When you come into contact with a covid-19 infected person, you need to see a doctor immediately. Tell your healthcare provider about the symptom’s if any.
Your Katy urgent care doctor will perform a covid-19 antibody test to determine if you are infected. They will also need your medical history and if you have underlying chronic medical conditions.