What is Coronavirus; Symptoms, Tips, Facts, and Precautions
What is Coronavirus
COVID-19, or popularly termed as Coronavirus, is a modern type of coronavirus originated from a family of animals. Unlike the rest four types of coronavirus (NL63, 229E, HKU1, and OC43), Covid-19 is deadly and spreading at a very fast pace globally. Other coronavirus strains are still very common and typically cause mild symptoms like common cold and flu.
How it Transmits?
Covid-19 is heavier than normal viruses, which means it does not stay in the air, but falls to surfaces after accidental emission by a host. It usually transmits from an infected person to healthy individuals through
- Personal contact such as shaking hands, touching, or hugging
- The droplets released by openly sneezing and coughing
- Contacting a surface or object with the virus on it and later touching the nose, mouth, or eyes
Treatment
Different countries are working on creating vaccines to prevent/cure this disease. In the US, an experimental vaccine has already been tested on one person and researchers will be testing around 45 more individuals in the coming 6 weeks period. Unfortunately, there is currently no treatment or vaccine for COVID-19.
Symptoms of Coronavirus
People may experience following symptoms within 2-3 days of contacting the coronavirus:
- Dry Cough
- High Fever
- Difficulty breathing (severe cases)
There is a chance that you won’t see any symptoms. However, it is better to self-quarantine yourself if you have been in contact with an affected person, have recent travel history, or been with a group of more than 40 people.
How to Differentiate Between Coronavirus, Flu, and Cold
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have been hearing a lot of speculations to identify and differentiate it with the common flu and cold.
Here are a few frequently asked questions we came across,
- Is Covid-19 like the flu?
- Do I have cold or corona?
- I am sneezing/coughing a lot, should I get tested?
We understand that panic is real. Regardless of so many health officials and web portals announcing and covering the detailed symptoms and precautions for Covid-19, we are still confused. It’s high time that we realize panicking isn’t the cure, it won’t help but increase the noise.
What to do now? Educate yourself and know how to differentiate between Cold, Flu, and Covid-19. Following are the major differences between the three as suggested by WHO,
| Symptoms | Coronavirus | Cold | Flu |
| Fever | Common | Rare | Common |
| Cough | Common (Usually Dry) | Mild | Common (Usually Dry) |
| Body Pain | Sometimes | Common | Common |
| Headache | Sometimes | Rare | Common |
| Sore Throat | Sometimes | Common | Sometimes |
| Shortness of Breath | Sometimes | No | No |
| Fatigue | Sometimes | Sometimes | Common |
| Runny or stuffy nose | Rare | Common | Sometimes |
| Diarrhea | Rare | No | Sometimes |
| Sneezing | No | Common | No |
Necessary Measures to Avoid Contacting Coronavirus
Taking the following measures is necessary to ensure one’s good health and safety of people around you,
Change in behavior
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
- Avoid shaking hands or hugging
- Avoid crowded places and social gatherings
- Cover your mouth with a tissue paper or elbow while sneezing and coughing
- Use of masks is unnecessary since the virus is droplet-borne
Change in actions
- Wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds after every 20 minutes
- Clean your house with a foam-based detergent
- Be careful around plastic surfaces, since Covid-19 stays there for longer
- Perform regular & frequent gargling with heated, salt-mixed water
- Enhance your immune system by meditating, getting tons of vitamins (particularly vitamin C), and healthy eating
- Get adequate sleep
- Regularly use alcohol-based sanitizers
Change in Eating habits
- Adopt healthy eating habits
- Increase protein intake to strengthen your immune system
- Increase multivitamins intake
- Avoid junk food as much as possible, it weakens your immune system
- Avoid cold water, cold drinks, and Ice-cream
- Drink warm water, as much as possible
Coronavirus Facts
Covid-19 is contagious but knowing the facts and taking appropriate precautionary measures will surely help you from the invasion of the corona.
Severity of cases
80% of Covid-19 cases have been mild, 16% have been severe, and 4% have been critical. Although there is no vaccine for this disease as of now, the majority from the infected get recovered due to strong immune systems, without having brought it to notice
Mortality Rate
The mortality rate of Covid-19 is less than 1%. However, avoiding the necessary measures and precautions can increase this rate.
Targeted Audience
This virus is affecting people of every group, age, and race. However, COVID-19 can cause serious illness especially to older people as well as people with chronic diseases and underlying health conditions including but not limited to lung disease, diabetes, and heart disease. Children act to be a high-risk host because they are more prone to lack of hygiene.
Maintain your distance, keep sanitizing, and stay safe everyone!
