Now that the majority of the United States is in semi-lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what should you do if you start feeling ill?

FIRST, CAVEAT:
The answer to this question is not a straightforward one and is going to differ from person to person and region to region. My intention here is to give some general guidance, not to provide medical advice. If you are feeling ill, contact your healthcare provider for instructions.
Again, this is not medical advice.

So, you’re not feeling well, eh? That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. The first and most important thing that you should do is to stay home. Only under explicit instructions from a healthcare provider should you even consider leaving. At least four out of five patients with COVID-19 have mild symptoms and can fully recover with rest at home.

The second thing you should attempt to do is isolate yourself from other members of your household. I know this is challenging, but if you can designate a sick room (even better, with a sick bathroom) you can help prevent transmission to your family or roommates. Do not share personal items such as cups, utensils, towels, or toothbrushes. Don’t share tablets or laptops. Clean used dishes and glasses with soap and water immediately after each use. Continue to disinfect commonly touched surfaces, cover your coughs and sneezes, and wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

Unfortunately, the SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to be quite transmissible and even if you isolate yourself when you become sick, it may be too late. This is obviously most concerning if you live with an older relative or someone with heart disease, diabetes, or another underlying condition, but should not be taken as a recommendation to be laissez-faire. Isolate yourself to the extent possible.

Monitor symptoms and call your doctor to arrange medical care if your illness worsens beyond a severe common cold. Request care sooner than later if you are older or have an underlying condition. Call 911 if you are having a medical emergency.

Seek medical attention if you develop any of:

• Shortness of breath
• Difficulty breathing
• Confusion
• Profound fatigue
• Bluish lips or face

This may be an unpopular opinion, but if your illness remains mild, the best thing you can do for yourself and others is to stay at home throughout.

It might be tempting to request a COVID-19 test anyway. There are public health benefits to quenching this curiosity including the ability to contact trace if you’ve gathered with people you know. But it won’t change the care you receive and you’d be putting others at risk.

With news stories of healthy celebrities and politicians receiving COVID-19 diagnoses, the message seems to be that anyone and everyone can be tested. THIS IS UNTRUE. There are many first-hand accounts of people with symptoms and exposure — the exact definition of a suspected COVID-19 case — denied testing. There are still not enough tests to evaluate all the people that meet the case definition, let alone all their contacts for tracing and isolation purposes. The U.S. continues to woefully lag behind the rest of the world in testing capacity. The celebrities you see announcing their COVID-19 results are simply and sadly the most recent example of inequality in this country.

There are reports of companies developing at-home COVID-19 tests. In my honest opinion, I think this is a wasteful endeavor that could harm more than it helps. These companies should instead put their efforts into creating point-of-care tests for healthcare workers on the frontline — tests that are evaluated and approved by the FDA. At-home tests are not validated and the chance of user error and misinterpretation is high.

Social distancing will help. How much, remains to be seen. According to the CDC, as of March 20 there are more than 15,000 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. However, only a fraction of patients who should be tested have gotten a test, meaning that 15,000 is still a staggering underrepresentation of how many infections are currently here. When this is all said-and-done (if that’s ever the case) a blood test that measures our immune reaction to the virus can tell us how far-reaching this pandemic truly was. A number in the millions, perhaps tens or hundreds of millions in the U.S. alone would not surprise me.

This does not mean all hope is lost and it doesn’t matter what we do.
We can still do our part today.

It may be boring and seem like an overreaction, but staying at home even while you’re healthy will help slow the spread of infection. Distancing yourself from others will flatten the curve, which will help healthcare workers provide the best care to patients who need it. This is especially true for young healthy people, who may be more likely to have a mild illness or no illness at all, yet can still contribute to spreading the infection to others. If you don’t care about yourself, maybe you care about someone else.

More resources:
CDC – What To Do If You Are Sick
Cloudy Media Blogs:
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is spreading, but there is good news
A Mysterious Case of COVID-19 Has Appeared in the U.S. What Do We Do Now?
Five Myths About Coronavirus Debunked
EBSCO Health Blogs:
Clinical Progression and Recovery of Patients with COVID-19
How a Clinical Resource Handles an Emerging Public Health Crisis — The Story of Novel Coronavirus
What Physicians Around the World Should Know About Novel Coronavirus