Common symptoms of COVID-19 include:

• • Cough
• • Sore throat
• • Fever
• • Runny nose or congestion
• • Difficulty breathing
• • Body aches
• • Headache
• • Fatigue
• • Loss of taste or smell
• • Nausea or vomiting
• • Diarrhea

COVID-19 can also cause rare symptoms for some people. Unusual symptoms of COVID-19 include:

• • Skin changes, like a red or purple rash or hives
• • Eye problems, like pink eye
• • Toes or fingers that are swollen, discolored, or painful (known as “COVID toes”)
• • New hair loss

Call 911 or your local emergency room before seeking immediate care for these more severe symptoms:

• • Difficulty breathing
• • New confusion
• • ​​​​​Pale blue or gray lips, skin, or nail beds
• • Inability to stay awake
• • Continual chest pain or pressure

Be sure to tell the staff at emergency services that you need help for someone who has (or could have) COVID-19, so they can take precautions to prevent the spread of infection.

Most people will have a mild illness with COVID-19 that can be managed by resting at home, staying hydrated, and using over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen (sold under the brand name Tylenol) to reduce pain and fever. Watch for severe symptoms that would require immediate medical attention, and call 911 if you have shortness of breath.

If you think you might have COVID-19, get tested. You should also take these measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect those around you:

• ​​​​​• Stay home unless you need to see a medical provider.
• • If you do need to see a medical provider, call ahead to let them know you might have COVID-19.
• • Avoid public places, including using public transportation, taxis, and ride-share vehicles (like Uber or Lyft).
• • If you live with other people, try to stay in one room and avoid sharing household items. If you can, use a different bathroom than the other people in your home.
• • Use a face mask to cover your nose and mouth when you aren’t alone.
• • Disinfect any commonly touched surfaces in the home.
• • Frequently wash your hands for 20 seconds, using soap and water. Be sure to wash your hands if you cough, sneeze, or blow your nose. Also, wash your hands before making food or eating and after you go to the bathroom.
• • Let your close contacts know you might have COVID-19. This includes anyone you spent 15 minutes or more with in the two days before you had symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19.

You should get a COVID-19 test for the following reasons:

• ​​​​​• You have symptoms of COVID-19.
• • You were exposed to someone who tested positive or might have COVID-19.
• • You are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and are asked to test by your workplace, school, health care provider, or your state, tribal, or local health department.

While waiting for your test results to come back, you should follow the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for this period of time. This includes staying away from others and wearing a face mask when you are not alone.

People who are fully vaccinated should be tested five to seven days after their last exposure to someone who had COVID-19 or as soon as they develop symptoms.

People who are not fully vaccinated should be tested as soon as they find out they were exposed to someone who had COVID-19. If that first test is negative, they should be tested five to seven days after that last exposure or as soon as they develop symptoms.

The majority of people who get COVID-19 will have a mild illness that can be managed at home with rest, hydration, and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen (sold under the brand name Tylenol) to reduce pain and fever. You should not go to the emergency room if you have mild or no symptoms.

However, you should seek emergency medical care for the following severe symptoms:

• • Difficulty breathing
• • New confusion
• • Pale blue or gray lips, skin, or nail beds
• • Inability to stay awake
• • Continual chest pain or pressure

Before going to the emergency room, call ahead and let the operator know if you have or might have COVID-19. You can also call 911 if you experience any of these severe symptoms.

Although both terms refer to staying home and away from others to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, the terms apply to different groups of people.

Quarantine is when people who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 — but do not have symptoms — stay apart from others and wait to see if they develop COVID-19.

Isolation is when people who have symptoms of COVID-19 — or test positive for COVID-19 even if they do not have symptoms — stay apart from others until they recover.

Read more about quarantine and isolation guidelines from the CDC.

People exposed to COVID-19 are not required to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated and show no symptoms or if they had COVID-19 (with a positive test) in the last 90 days. You should wear a face mask around others for a full 10 days after your last contact with someone who has COVID-19.

Unvaccinated people should quarantine at home for at least five days and wear a face mask around other people for a full 10 days after they last had contact with someone with COVID-19. Get tested on the fifth day, even if you do not have symptoms. If your test is positive, continue to isolate. If you test negative at that time, you can end your quarantine but continue to wear a face mask around others (at home and in public) until day 10.

Read more about quarantine and isolation from the CDC.

If you test positive for COVID-19 or have symptoms, whether or not you have been vaccinated, you must isolate for at least five days after the day you were tested or your first day of symptoms. Ideally, isolation should last 10 days. However, under the CDC’s guidance in response to the latest variant (omicron), if you are unable to isolate for 10 days, you can end isolation after five days if you are fever free for 24 hours (without medicine) and your other symptoms are improving.

If you have access to a rapid antigen test, the CDC recommends testing again on the fifth day before ending your isolation. If you test positive on the fifth day, you should continue to isolate. If you test negative at that time, you may end isolation, but you must continue to wear a face mask around others until day 10.

Read more about isolation and quarantine from the CDC.

If you have COVID-19, you’re more likely to spread it to someone else early in the course of the illness, even a day or two before you develop symptoms. Being contagious after 10 days is unlikely for someone with a normal immune system, even if you continue to have a positive COVID-19 test.

Read more about when someone is contagious from the CDC.

Follow guidance from the CDC and your local health department about when to go back to work or school after a COVID-19 exposure or infection.

The majority of children who become infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 will have mild symptoms or no symptoms. However, children and adolescents can get sick with COVID-19, and some can become severely ill and require hospitalization.

Serious illness is more likely to occur in infants under 1 year old and children who have underlying medical conditions like asthma, diabetes, and heart disease among others. Although fewer children tend to get sick with COVID-19 than adults, some children will later go on to develop a serious illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). This is a rare condition where different parts of the body become inflamed. It’s usually improved with medical care.

Recovery time is highly variable. Most people with a mild illness will recover in two weeks, but more severe disease could take several months. Loss of taste or smell usually improves within 30 days, but it can continue for 60 days or more.

After initial recovery, some people may experience post-COVID symptoms.

Learn more about the course of COVID-19 from Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Most people will develop some protection against repeat infections after they recover from their initial COVID-19 illness. Unfortunately, some reinfections can still occur. Studies show that people who don't get vaccinated after recovery from COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to get COVID-19 again than those who do go on to get vaccinated.

Learn more about reinfections from the CDC.

Most monoclonal antibody treatments have been shown to be ineffective against omicron, the current dominant variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. Read more about preventing and treating COVID-19 from the CDC.

After initial recovery from COVID-19, some people may experience post-COVID symptoms (also called “long COVID-19”). Take this quiz to learn how likely it is that you could have long COVID-19. You may want to talk to your doctor about any lingering symptoms.

Some people will experience mild side effects after their COVID-19 vaccine, such as tiredness, muscle aches, a headache, or pain at the site of the injection. However, these usually go away within a few days.

Symptoms of COVID-19 from infection with the virus can be more severe and affect more of the body, and they frequently last for a couple of weeks or sometimes months.

Visit the CDC website for additional information about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

1. COVID-19 — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2. Unusual Coronavirus (COVID-19) Symptoms: What Are They? — Mayo Clinic
3. COVID-19 Infection Is a Major Cause of Acute Telogen Effluvium — Irish Journal of Medical Science
4. Directory of Local Health Departments — National Association of County and City Health Officials
5. Coronavirus Diagnosis: What Should I Expect? — Johns Hopkins Medicine
6. Reduced Risk of Reinfection With SARS-CoV-2 After COVID-19 Vaccination — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention