If you've caught COVID-19 during the holidays—and the highly contagious Omron version is in circulation, so did a record number of people—you may be wondering what your next steps should be.
Here's what experts say you should know.
I tested positive, but I am feeling fine. Should I still part ways?
Regardless of whether you are symptomatic or not, you will need to isolate once you test positive for COVID-19.
Your isolation period varies depending on which state or territory you are in.
In most states, the isolation period for positive cases and their household contacts is seven days.
In others, like in South Australia, the isolation period for confirmed cases is 10 days.
Being asymptomatic, however, is a good thing, as it reduces the risk of further transmission, especially after the time of your isolation is over.
Myron Cohen, director of global health and infectious diseases at the UNC School of Infectious Diseases, said, "If you've got an infection and you're feeling well and several days have passed, the chances are pretty high that you're not contagious." Medicine.
He said that if you and the people around you wear masks, then you are taking proper precautions.
"You don't know who is contagious in your universe," Cohen said.
Just because someone had COVID-19 five days ago doesn't mean they should be considered more dangerous.
“What about the guy next to you who has never been tested who is asymptomatic and has more copies than me? We should act like we believe everyone has COVID.”
Am I now less likely to get COVID-19 again?
Infection provides some natural immunity from the coronavirus, but it is not that simple.
“We often talk about immunity to this virus as if it is a yes or a no. You are either immune or you are not. But Mother Nature rarely works this way,” said Dr. Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Immunity is on a continuum. This may change over time.
For example, COVID-19 is not chickenpox.
"In chickenpox, you're never going to get chickenpox again, but you know, a high bar," Cohen said.
Dr David Wohl, a professor of medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at UNC School of Medicine, said that after infection your body will be able to fight the coronavirus better, but there is no guarantee that you will not get it again.
“I wish you could say, once you catch COVID, you never catch it again. It is not that kind of virus,” he said.
“So we know that with reinfection data, you are not immune to it just because you had a previous infection. There are some things you catch that you never catch again, but it's one of those things where, yes, you keep getting it."
Dr Stan Vermund, dean of public health at the Yale School of Medicine and the Anna MR Lauder Professor, said that in some ways, a person may be "safer" after acquiring COVID-19 than being seriously ill from a subsequent infection. probability is less.
“If they get the infection later, they are less likely to have a high viral load. So in that sense they are a little safer."
But, experts say, don't go wild. Be careful.
"I wouldn't say that anyone should feel comfortable, if they've got an infection, they can feel that you're immune to a reinfection or complications," Snyder said.
"It provides some protection. I wouldn't depend on it for 100% protection."
At some point down the road, Wohl said, this coronavirus may be like the common cold — another coronavirus — and people will get it every few years, but it may not be as severe, and there will be treatments that ease. are available from. But those days are not here yet.
Does being sick in one way provide protection from another?
After any COVID-19 illness, your body is usually able to detect the coronavirus.
“No matter what, your body is now able to better recognize that virus in the future. it is strong; It's better prepared," Snyder said. But exactly how it was prepared isn't quite clear.
Delta and Omicron variants were in vogue around the holidays. Holding one of them could possibly still make you vulnerable to the other.
"The degree of cross-protection from delta and omicron is not very well known yet," Cohen said. "It's generally a complicated answer, but for a simple answer, the answer is, having a natural infection confers some immunity and probably confers some cross-immunity, but the magnitude of cross-immunity is not known."
Last month, a small study in South Africa looking at blood taken from people infected with Omicron showed that they had a stronger immune response to Omicron — but also a stronger immune response to the delta variant, researchers said. Told. The study is limited and not peer-reviewed, and it is not certain whether it was the Omicron infection that boosted immunity in the volunteers' blood, the researchers noted.
If Omicron infections make people less vulnerable to delta infections, that could be a good thing, the researchers noted. "If so, the incidence of COVID-19 serious illness would be reduced and infection could be less disruptive to individuals and society," said Alex Sigal and Khadija Khan of the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, and colleagues. written in his report.
But remember, there's no telling what other variants might come out after these, or how different they might be from Delta or Omicron.
What if I get sick but haven't been vaccinated or outgrown? Do I still need a shot?
Experts say yes.
With this particular coronavirus, your immune response is better with a vaccine than with a natural infection, Vermund said. It's not at all clear why.
Studies on COVID-19 reinfection show this to be true. Re-infection was more common in someone who had natural immunity than in someone who had been vaccinated.
Wohl said, "If you have a vaccine -- even not enhanced, just vaccinated -- much less than if you weren't vaccinated and got infected before. Is."
Wohl points to a study conducted in September by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that documented nearly 11,000 reinfections. Of those, only 200 cases were of people who were vaccinated.
"We encourage anyone who is still vaccinated because vaccination helps prepare the body by producing a more robust set of antibodies," Snyder said. "They bind more strongly, and boosters in particular are broader. They are able to recognize differences in viruses."
After a vaccine, any reinfection will probably cause much less severe disease.
Wohl said that if you have had an infection, your immune system is well prepared and ready to fight the coronavirus. Your body should be better prepared if you encounter Omicron again, but there's no absolute guarantee that you'll be safe if, for example, you wake up to an immaculate crowd at a concert.
What if I was promoted and then got COVID? Can I throw caution to the wind afterwards?
“We are in the middle of a boom. This is the worst time to get out there and be around other people's noses and throats, said Woll.
Plus, again, you can't be sure that the virus you'll be exposed to will be the same version you caught before.
"A person who has had COVID and Boost may still want to use common sense, because we don't yet understand what the other variants would be and how they would react to them," Cohen said.
The Omicron version is too new for experts to know anything about its long-term effects.
Can I get longer COVID after having Omicron? Or can my kids get MIS-C?
"We don't know yet," Snyder said.
"It's too early to know."
Research has found that vaccination lowers your risk of long-term COVID symptoms.
And other studies say that the most severe effects of a COVID complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) in children resolve within six months.