There is plenty of anxiety. And many patients have made appointments with a request to be tested. But the answers they have been getting are confusing and often frustrating as well. What should you do if you think you have COVID-19 (the disease caused by the novel coronavirus aka SARS-CoV-2)?
The first step is figuring out if you need to go to the emergency department. If you are feeling short of breath and/or having trouble breathing, this is definitely an indication (or a reason) to go to your nearest emergency department for evaluation. Having low oxygen saturation (or hypoxia) may necessitate supplemental oxygen usually being provided by a nasal cannula.
The second step is to call your primary physician and check with your county’s Department of Public Health. These two resources should help you understand the testing capabilities of your locale and unfortunately this will be a big determinant of who can get tested if they are not “sick enough” to require hospitalization.
Many of my visits have involved advising patients about the realities of our situation and lack of adequate testing. I have had to advise patients that have symptoms that they ought to stay at home and assume they have COVID-19 and self quarantine at home. The reasoning for this is that we assume many people who have COVID-19 will be in the spectrum from asymptomatic to mild/moderate disease that does not require admission to the hospital. If people who are well enough NOT to require a hospital admission, then the information obtained from testing will not change the treatment (self quarantining and treating the symptoms).
What symptoms should one look out for? That question is tricky. As we learn more about the disease we are seeing more and more symptoms that can be caused by COVID-19. For example, early on we advised patients to be on the lookout for a new cough, fever, or shortness of breath. However there have been reports of other symptoms including diarrhea, loss of taste/smell, etc. As this is changing, I would recommend the following sources:
