Coronavirus (COVID-19) Frequently Asked Questions

SARS-CoV-2 is not the same virus as MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV. However, it belongs to the same genus (betacoronavirus) and the symptoms are similar to those of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV are instances when animal coronaviruses evolved and infected people and then spread between people. SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans in China in 2002 and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have never infected humans. Bats are believed to be a common reservoir of coronaviruses.

SARS-CoV-2 is spread from an infected person to others. The ways that the virus spread include:

• Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
• Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks.
• These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.
• Some recent studies have suggested that COVID-19 may be spread by people who are not showing symptoms.

The signs and symptoms of COVID-19 may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. The typical signs and symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath. However, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and new loss of taste or smell are also reported. COVID-19 affects different people in many different ways.

For the latest information on signs and symptoms, visit the CDCs webpage.

There are currently no vaccines available to protect you against human coronavirus infection. You may be able to reduce your risk of infection by doing the following:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Here is an instructional video on how to wash your hands
• Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, if soap and water are not available. Here is an instructional video on using alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Wear a face mask in public settings.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Put a 6 feet distance between yourself and other people.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

There currently are no vaccines to protect against the SARS-CoV-2.

There are no specific treatments. Medical care is supportive and to help relieve symptoms.

Contact your primary care provider. If you have a medical emergency, call 911. Notify the operator that you have, or think you might have, COVID-19. If possible, put on a cloth face covering before medical help arrives.

Beginning Monday, March 23, all UT Physicians clinics expanded the current modified screening process. Patients, visitors, and employees take part in a brief survey and temperature reading when arriving for appointments. This will be in effect until further notice. Further, we are encouraging everyone to wear a mask when entering the clinic building.

With these new protocols, it is recommended that patients arrive early for appointments. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. However, this is a rapidly evolving situation with COVID-19 and our utmost priority is the safety of our patient population and our employees.

We encourage everyone to be vigilant and help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses by practicing good hygiene, including:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Here is an instructional video on how to wash your hands
• Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, if soap and water are not available. Here is an instructional video on using alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Wear a face mask in public settings.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Put a 6 feet distance between yourself and other people.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

If you are experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone with the disease, you are asked to call your clinic prior to your appointment. If you have a medical emergency, call 911. Notify the operator that you have, or think you might have, COVID-19. If possible, put on a cloth face covering before medical help arrives.

Updated information for Houston and Harris County can be found here.

Updated information for the United States can be found here.

CDC has activated their Emergency Operations Center to provide support for the COVID-19 response. CDC has released information on the virus, which can be found here.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, individuals who have chronic conditions or are above the age of 70, are considered at the greatest risk for developing severe symptoms. More information can be found here.

More information can be found at the CDC website and the WHO website.

To find out how many people in Houston and Harris County have COVID-19, please visit their website.

To find out how many people in the United States have COVID-19, please visit this website.

Read updated travel notices from the CDC.

This is a very important question. Please contact your physician’s office as soon as possible so they can guide you on the next best steps.

We know that this virus is transmitted through contact droplet. Eating out is not recommended at this time because of the risk of COVID-19 being transmitted from high touch surfaces (door, table, chair, etc.). Ordering take-out food or having food delivered are both safer options.

There are many scams taking place in regards to COVID-19. Please review information from the Federal Trade Commission.

Yes. Activity is good for your body, mind, and mood. Experts say you can walk or hike, or do other activity outside—as long as you can stay 6 feet away from other people.

Because COVID-19 is new, experts don’t have enough information to say if and how the virus will affect a pregnancy. They also don’t know whether the virus can be passed to the baby (fetus). The immune system can change during pregnancy. Experience with similar viruses has shown that there might be a higher risk for serious illness during pregnancy. It’s important to do what you can to be as healthy as possible. This includes taking steps to prevent infection, such as washing your hands often and staying at least 6 feet away from people. Keep having regular prenatal visits. Stay in touch with your health care team.

It’s important to keep your distance to help stop the spread of the virus. You must always be 6 feet or more away from someone. You may think you’re healthy, but you could carry the virus and spread it even if you feel fine. And so could your friends. So no parties, handshakes, hugs, or high-fives.

People could transmit the virus when they don’t have symptoms and before developing symptoms. Therefore it is now recommended wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where social distancing is difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores and pharmacies.

You can always call friends and family or see each other on Skype, FaceTime, or another type of video call.

There’s no evidence that the virus can be spread through water or food. The virus is believed to be spread from person to person. This happens through close contact (being within 6 feet) and droplets when a person who has the virus coughs or sneezes. Experts also think it may be possible to get the virus by touching something that has the virus on it and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes. City water treatment disinfects water. While food doesn’t spread the virus, it’s important to wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before you prepare food. It’s also important to disinfect surfaces like kitchen counters, tables, and objects that you touch.

There haven’t been any reports so far of household pets getting the virus. But if you have COVID-19, experts recommend that you stay away from your pets—just like you would stay away from people when you’re sick. If you have to care for your pets yourself, wash your hands before and after.

The virus can survive on some surfaces for up to 3 days, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. How well it survives may depend on the surface it’s on. In the study, the virus lasted longest on plastic and stainless steel. It didn’t live as long on cardboard. Because the virus can live for hours to days, it’s especially important to keep items around you clean. Experts advise disinfecting surfaces and objects you touch a lot, such as tables, door handles, faucets, toilets, handrails, and remote controls. You can use household disinfectants, a bleach solution, or alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol.

If your test is negative and your symptoms continue or get worse, you should call your doctor or other health care provider. They will tell you if you need another test. No medical test is perfect. If your test result is positive, you are believed to have COVID-19. You will be diagnosed with it. But if your test result is negative, you still could have COVID-19. There are several reasons why a test might be negative, even though you have been infected. For example, your virus levels might be too low for the test to detect. Or the virus may not have been in the area of your body where the test was done. Sometimes there are errors in how the sample was collected or how the test was run. This could cause a negative test, even when you have an infection.

A ventilator is a machine that breathes for a person when they can’t breathe well enough on their own. COVID-19 is a respiratory virus. This means it can affect the breathing systems of the body, especially the lungs. Most people with COVID-19 don’t get seriously ill. But when someone is very ill, the infection affects the lungs so severely that breathing is hard or impossible. A ventilator has a tube that goes through the mouth into the lungs. The machine brings oxygen into the lungs and removes carbon dioxide. A ventilator is important because it does the work of the lungs and gives them time to heal. After they heal, the tube can be removed. One of the main concerns about this virus is whether there will be enough ventilators if many people get sick at the same time.

It’s important to show thanks for the many hours of hard work that health care workers are putting in to take care of us. They are risking their own lives to help others. And they are worried about exposing their own families. Here are some things you can do to help those providers and all of us. Practice social distancing to help prevent the spread of the virus. This will help all of us stay healthier, which reduces the burden on hospitals and health care workers. Stay at home as much as you can. Keep washing your hands. This also will help reduce the spread of the virus and the stress on the health care system. Don’t buy N95 face masks. These masks are in short supply. Health care workers need the masks to protect themselves when they care for people who are sick. Call ahead to your doctor’s office or urgent care if you think you have symptoms of COVID-19. These include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Calling ahead allows a provider to tell you if you need to be seen and to prepare before you come in. Follow their instructions. They may ask you to stay home if you have mild symptoms that can be treated at home. Be kind to health care workers. They have a lot of people to care for at a stressful time. So be patient and follow their instructions at the clinic or hospital. The rules are in place for everyone’s protection.

Some people who have COVID-19 don’t have any symptoms. That’s called being asymptomatic. Studies have shown that people may spread the virus even if they don’t have symptoms. We don’t know yet how much this is happening. That’s another reason why it’s important to keep following social distancing guidelines and stay at least 6 feet away from others. People with COVID-19 seem to be most contagious when they have symptoms like a fever and a cough.

You can clean and disinfect your phone. But be careful not to spray liquid on it. Moisture could get in the phone and damage it. Unplug the phone from charging or any devices or cables. Spray a non-abrasive disinfectant or 70% isopropyl alcohol on a soft, lint-free cloth. (Don’t use paper towels or anything else that is abrasive.) Gently clean the phone (and phone case if you use one) with the cloth. Don’t use bleach to clean the phone. You can do a few other things to help keep your phone clean—and help keep you safe: Text or email photos to others instead of handing people your phone. Avoid putting your phone on surfaces that you haven’t disinfected. Use Bluetooth or a headset when possible. That way the phone isn’t touching your face.

An antibody test looks for antibodies in the blood. These are proteins that your immune system makes, usually after you’re exposed to germs like viruses or bacteria. Antibodies work to fight illness.

An antibody test for COVID-19 could help you know if you‘ve already had the virus that causes this illness. (A different kind of test is used to tell if you are currently infected with COVID-19 and able to infect others.) Without antibody testing, many people who have been exposed to COVID-19 won’t even know it, because they never had symptoms or had only mild ones.

People who already have antibodies to the COVID-19 virus and don’t have symptoms might be safe to go back to work or school or to travel. In theory, they’ve already had the infection, so they can’t get it again or spread it to anyone else. That’s why many companies are advertising antibody tests and some communities are embracing them.

Over time, antibody testing may help with decisions about when we can end social distancing and “get back to normal.” It may also help us know who is still at risk and needs to be protected.

But we aren’t there yet. That’s because:

• The current tests aren’t reliable. Many of the COVID-19 antibody tests available now are easy to use and give quick results. But experts warn that the results may not be trustworthy.

  Many tests have been found to give a high rate of false-positives. This means that the test often shows that a person has antibodies to COVID-19 when in fact they don’t. Instead of being protected from infection, the person would actually still be at risk for COVID-19. So going back to work, school, or other public places could be dangerous.

• We don’t yet know enough about this virus. The fact is, this virus is so new that we simply don’t understand it well yet. We don’t know for sure that having antibodies to COVID-19 will protect you from getting infected again. And if having these antibodies does protect you, we don’t know how long that protection lasts.

We’ll probably have good antibody tests soon. When that time comes, public health authorities or your doctor will tell you if and how to get an antibody test.

But at this point, antibody testing may be misleading. It’s not clear who should be tested and what the results mean. We’ll need to wait until we know more about COVID-19 and have tests we can trust.

No. Antibiotics treat infections that are caused by bacteria. COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus. Viruses are different than bacteria. Antibiotics don’t help and can even cause other problems.

Doctors and hospitals are starting clinical trials to see if this treatment will help to fight COVID-19. Immunoglobulin (also called gamma globulin or immune globulin) is made from the blood of people who have recovered from an infection. In the case of COVID-19, it contains antibodies that fight COVID-19. When a person gets an infection, the body responds by making antibodies. These antibodies attack the infection and help the body fight it.

The hope is that if immunoglobulin is given to someone who is very ill from the virus, the antibodies will help that person fight and overcome the infection.

Experts don’t yet know if this will work and be safe for people with a serious COVID-19 infection. It seems to help in some other serious infections.

There are two different laboratory tests now available for SARS-CoV-2. One is a viral test that will tell you if you have a current infection. This test requires a swab to go into your nose. The other test is an antibody test. This blood test will tell you if you have had an infection.

The length of time someone is sick with COVID-19 varies. It depends on how sick a person is. When people are mildly ill, they usually get better in 1 or 2 weeks.

People who are more severely ill have worse symptoms, like severe shortness of breath and pneumonia. They need care in a hospital. They usually get better in 3 to 6 weeks. Some people who get very sick may need even more time to recover.

Some people with COVID-19 have very mild or no symptoms. They may get over the infection without even knowing they had it.

So far, there is no evidence that COVID-19 is spread by ticks or mosquitoes. COVID-19 is spread mainly person-to-person. It can be spread by close contact or by droplets when a person who is infected sneezes or coughs.

There are two main reasons for concern. The first is that some people ARE at high risk of serious illness and death. The second is that if a lot of people get sick at the same time, health care providers may not be able to take care of everyone.

It’s true that many people with infections won’t get too sick. Most people get over the illness without problems. But some people—especially those who are older or have other health problems—can get very ill and will need intensive care in a hospital. If we can prevent the spread of infection, we can reduce the number of serious infections and help protect those who are at highest risk.

If COVID-19 spreads very quickly and widely, many people may be sick at one time. If this happens, the medical community may not have the resources to care for people in the way they need. Taking action to prevent the spread of the virus can help make sure this doesn’t happen.