How Do Coronavirus Spread?

The coronavirus is most commonly spread from an infected person to others via:

• Touching a surface or an object with the virus on it then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth
• Close contact such as shaking or touching of hands
• The air by sneezing or coughing

What Are The Symptoms?

The symptoms might appear 2 to14 days after exposure to the virus. The symptoms might include:

• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Congestion or runny nose
• Sore throat
• New loss of smell or taste
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath
• Cough
• Fever or chills

Call your healthcare professional if you develop symptoms and have been in close contact with a person known to have the virus.

How To Protect Yourself?

These are the steps you can take to lessen your risk from any viral respiratory infections;

• Disinfect and clean surfaces or objects.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue if you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue you used in the appropriate trash and wash your hands after.
• Avoid close contact with others especially if they are sick.
• Avoid touching your nose, mouth, or eyes with unwashed hands.

If you need to leave your place or home and go to a public area where social distancing is hard to maintain wear your face covering or face mask. Wearing of face mask is one of the basic protocols we have now. Homemade cloth face coverings offer some protection and help people who might have the virus. Face coverings are not a replacement for other measures such as sneeze/cough etiquette, good hand hygiene, obeying social distancing orders, and avoiding close contact with others. Also, social distancing is the practice of lessening contact between people to slow the spread of the disease.

How To Treat Symptoms At Home?

As of the moment, there are no known vaccines or medicines to effectively treat coronavirus disease. However, there are things you can do to feel better. Here’s a list of some recommended treatment to manage symptoms:

• Body Pains and Fever

Fever happens when your body acts to fight off infection. A fever often makes you feel uncomfortable and tired. Drink lots of fluids to manage aches and fever. Over-the-counter medicine can help you lower fever and improve discomfort. Acetaminophen is the recommended over-the-counter medicine to manage fever and aches.

• Sore Throat and Dry Cough

When you cough, it is the way of the body to remove irritants that enter the lungs. Drinking lots of water and sipping on hot tea might help soothe irritation in your throat.

• Tiredness

You will feel tired as your body fights off infection. The treatment is simply to rest.

• Sudden Loss Of Smell Or Taste

These might appear early in the infection before any other symptoms. There is no recommended treatment for a sudden loss of smell or taste.

• Nasal Congestion

Over-the-counter cough and colds medicine might be used for the treatment of this symptom. Take note that this type of medication interacts with several medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, glaucoma.