According to the CDC, there have been more than 100 million reported cases of the coronavirus disease in the country. Coronavirus is often called COVID-19 because it first appeared in late 2019. If you suspect you have symptoms of COVID-19 or have recently come into contact with a person with the disease, you should go for a Sugar Land Covid test. A COVID-19 test can help establish if your symptoms are caused by a coronavirus and not other common illnesses such as the flu or pneumonia.
Going for an early test, which comes back positive, can help ensure proper management of the illness so that it does not threaten your life or cause complications. Also, if your COVID-19 test is positive, you can take measures that ensure you do not infect others and spread the disease.
Subsequently, below are a few other things you may need to remember about COVID-19 testing and stages of infection.
Options for COVID-19 testing
An antigen test is one of the common tests your doctor may recommend. Your doctor will swab the back of the throat or nose to extract a sample or specimen for testing. An antigen test is often highly accurate. However, an antigen test for COVID-19 may fail to detect an active infection.
Therefore, your doctor may recommend you undergo an antibody test if your antigen testing is negative. Also called a blood or serology test, an antibody test looks for antibodies to the virus causing COVID-19.
Antibodies are blood proteins your immune system produces and releases to fight off antigens or foreign invaders.
Stages of COVID-19 infection
There are still ongoing clinical studies to understand COVID-19 better. However, generally, researchers classify coronavirus infection and recovery into three broad stages.
The first stage is the incubation period, which is the time it takes before you begin experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.
It often takes two to 14 days for symptoms to appear after you get infected by the coronavirus. The incubation period depends on the COVID-19 variant that has infected you and your general health. Still, you can infect people even when you do not show signs of COVID-19 infection.
The second stage is acute COVID-19. Once you begin to show symptoms of COVID-19, you are in the acute phase of the illness. The symptoms may last a few weeks if you have a mild or moderate coronavirus.
However, the symptoms may persist for months if you have a severe coronavirus case. Remember that you may have coronavirus but not show signs, and thus you are identified as asymptomatic.
The last stage of a COVID attack is Post-COVID conditions, also called long COVID-19. If your coronavirus attack is severe, you will experience this phase of coronavirus attack. Your symptoms will last for more than three months.
Always take necessary precautions so that you do not put yourself or others at risk of COVID-19 infections. For instance, you may need to isolate yourself from others, wear a high-quality, well-fitting medical mask, wash hands frequently, ensure sufficient indoor air circulation, and always consult your healthcare provider.
Contact St. Michael’s Elite Hospital today to schedule an appointment for your COVID-19 test.
