How long can a Covid patient infect others?
How long is a person who has contracted Covid-19 contagious is simple math, but we don't like to dabble with math and numbers when we are stuck at home isolating. Allow us to make it easier for you.
1. A joint paper released by the National Center for Infectious Disease (NCID) and the Chapter of Infectious Disease Physicians, Academy of Medicine, Singapore, had indicated that a person becomes infectious at least two days before they start to show symptoms of Covid-19. Other studies have suggested a range of 1-3 days.
2. A person is definitely contagious when they are showing the symptoms. Covid-19 symptoms are familiar to us all by now. There are high chances that the infection will first appear as a low-grade intermittent fever since the body starts to fight the virus, and that increases body temperature. Soon enough, multiple other symptoms appear, such as dry cough, fatigue, body chills, loss of taste or smell, or both, etc. During symptomatic state -- which can last 14 days, sometimes even more -- a Covid patient will surely be contagious and they must isolate completely.
3. Covid symptoms can disappear quite early as your body starts to recover. But that is not a free ticket to venture outside. The viral load takes at least 7 days to shed. To stay in the side of caution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prescribes meeting all three of the following conditions:
A. It has been 10 days since patient first developed symptoms.
B. They have not had a fever for 24 hours and have not used fever-reducing medications.
C. Their other symptoms of Covid-19 are improving.
Doctors, however, prescribe that the most reliable way to know you are out of danger is to get a Covid test done on your 14th day.
For most people, the virus leaves with 14 days of infection, and they return a negative test. However, there have been some cases where viral residuals stay back in your system long after the infection, which keeps returning a positive test. This is no cause for concern, since the viral residuals are not live, and often take time to leave your body but they surely do.
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