Exposed To Omicron? What To Do When You've Been Up Close And Personal With COVID
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No one wanted it to happen, only it'south happening. We're back in the thick of the pandemic. Simply when you thought you could burst your social bubble, Omicron started running amok and it'south not letting up. Plus, Delta is yet in the mix. If it'due south not one variant, it's another! With that double blow, unmarried-twenty-four hours infection numbers are soaring. Hospital beds are filling up once more. The public is at a breaking point. The deplorable reality is that this recent surge of Omicron places u.s. in an unhealthy compromise – unhealthier than ever before. Because it is an easily transmissible virus, it requires more frequent testing, only that's not always an available pick. That being said, how do you keep yourself (and those around you) well when yous've been in contact with someone who is positive for COVID-19?

To quarantine or not to quarantine

Surely, no 1 wants to hear that they've been in the company of a COVID-positive person – within six feet for a total of fifteen minutes over a 24-hour menstruum. Withal, chances are extremely loftier (particularly with this new and highly contagious Omicron variant) that you will exist exposed. In fact, information technology'south equally good as guaranteed that we all will.

Let'southward assume you already have been. Perchance y'all received a call from a friend or co-worker, or your doctor. Does information technology mean you have to driblet everything and lay low? The answer isn't cut and dry out. To quarantine or not to quarantine depends on your vaccination status: unvaccinated, fully vaccinated, or fully vaccinated and boosted (more on that, afterwards). The skilful news? If yous do have to have a hiatus, it won't exist as long as previously recommended.

For the unvaccinated or vaccinated merely not boosted

According to the most recent updates past the Middle of Disease Command (CDC), if you've had a COVID exposure and accept called not to go the vaccine, the vaccine is not recommended by your wellness provider because of your health history, or you are vaccinated but haven't received a booster, have out your calendar and circle five days later on your initial contact. That's the date you can come out of quarantine if asymptomatic (bank check with your local health department for specifics).

Subsequently your five-day quarantine, y'all'll need to do the following:

  • Strictly mask up for an boosted five days in all settings where yous can infect someone, including your own domicile if someone is living there who doesn't have COVID-xix.
  • Be mindful of your interactions because they tin have far-reaching, harmful consequences for others.

Allow'south not permit each other down. With and so much dubiousness, it'due south of import to behave responsibly and live past the rules. And if you oasis't received your booster yet, y'all tin obtain ane six months subsequently the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and two months following the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

For the fully vaccinated plus additional

The option to skip quarantine is only available to those who are fully vaccinated and boosted. Following a coronavirus exposure, if y'all are symptom-free and encounter this criteria, y'all tin can hold off before parting company from the rest of the world. It's okay to continue normal activities as long as you exercise the following precautions:

  • Wear a mask. You're advised to wear one for 10 days or until you receive a negative COVID test. When y'all are out and virtually and effectually other people, habiliment a mask that covers your mouth and nose (this is a good for you habit regardless of known exposure).
  • Look five days to exam. If you do not have symptoms, look v days afterwards beingness in close contact with COVID before y'all go tested. Information technology may seem like weeks, especially when you're broken-hearted to know if you lot are positive, but testing too presently may give a imitation negative upshot, which doesn't help things.
  • Practice social distancing. Stay a healthy altitude (half dozen feet) abroad from others and go along interactions short (less than fifteen minutes, which may not be a bad affair in some situations!).

Monitoring symptoms

If and when symptoms of COVID arise and the move into isolation is medically necessary, we're all in this boat together, regardless of vaccination condition. If in that location has been an exposure to coronavirus, monitor for symptoms – fever, cough, difficulty breathing, loss of taste and smell, fatigue, headaches, trunk aches, sore throat, congestion, and runny nose. You lot don't accept to have all of them, just some.

If symptoms exercise appear, ride it out alone. If y'all alive with others, practice what's possible to split up yourself from them for five days after developing symptoms. In addition to that, wear a mask at all times, without exception, for another v days. Recollect, ending the pandemic means nosotros are all for ane and one for all.

Create and stock your emergency preparedness kit

Got exposed? To minimize the disruption COVID tin have on your life, exist sure to stock up on a few essentials and have your emergency (and emotional) COVID preparedness kit stocked and accessible. The post-obit are a few essential items to ward off moans and groans associated with COVID:

  • Tylenol or Motrin to soothe aches and lower a fever.
  • Cough syrup to at-home a bothersome cough so you lot can get some residue.
  • Purchase a pulse oximeter at your local pharmacy to go on tabs on your oxygen level. If it falls below 95%, contact your wellness provider right away.
  • Discuss with your dr. beforehand if you're a candidate for monoclonal antibodies. After exposure, at that place's a 7 to ten-day window to receive the therapy. This may exist a tough phone call since the treatment may not exist equally effective against Omicron as it is with other variants.

Additional ways to lighten the viral stress load of the coronavirus include:

  • Save sick days to navigate recovery, especially if you're the primary flagman for other people in your family.
  • For parents, identify someone to assistance with the kids. Parenting tin be a claiming when you are out of committee due to COVID.
  • Find a secluded infinite in your home where y'all (or a family member) can take refuge in the result of a coronavirus infection.

Preventing the spread

Stop the spread before it even starts. Having home COVID tests on-hand makes it easier to find out if y'all're positive, giving you the knowledge and power to take activity sooner. Production of home COVID tests have ramped up, so getting one or iii (let'due south not make this a echo of the coronavirus toilet newspaper hoarding, though) is sensible. Taking the examination really can prevent the superspread of the virus. How, you ask? People attention an consequence can take a home COVID test as shut as possible to the time of gathering. A positive test indicates you lot're infectious. If this happens, gracefully bow out from planned events, send your regrets, and everyone will thank you.

"Keep calm, breathe and recollect"

The ever-changing nature of COVID-19 continues to cause quite the puzzler. Only there are rays of promise that empower you to stay rubber, such as at-dwelling house testing and the accessibility of vaccines, with more coming to the market place presently, including anti-viral pills. In the concurrently, if you have an exposure to coronavirus, in the wise words of my 4-year-old niece, "proceed at-home, breathe, and think." When you do so, you can protect yourself — and others.

Dr. Bernadette Anderson is a family md, the founder of Life in Harmony LLC, a wellness curator, and author of her upcoming book, "Fulfilled. 52 Prescriptions for Healing, Wellness, and Happiness." Her dwelling base is in Columbus, Ohio, simply Dr. B tin can also be found online on LinkedIn and Instagram.

TOPICS: COVID-19 health and wellness omicron variant