Clinical Care Guidance for Healthcare Professionals about Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Healthcare providers who have cared or are caring for patients younger than 21 years of age meeting multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) criteria should report suspected cases to their local, state, or territorial health department.
For additional reporting questions, please contact CDC’s 24-hour Emergency Operations Center at 770-488-7100.
Guidance
Guidance for Home Care
Guidance by Patient Type
The signs and symptoms of COVID-19 present at illness onset vary, but over the course of the disease, most people with COVID-19 experience one or more of the following:
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
Ten things healthcare providers involved in patient care should know related to:
- Treatment and Prophylaxis
- Symptoms and Diagnosis
- Co-Infections
- Severe Illness
Persons with COVID-19 who have symptoms and were directed to care for themselves at home may discontinue isolation under the following conditions:
- At least 10 days* have passed since symptom onset and
- At least 24 hours have passed since fever resolved without the use of fever-reducing medications and,
- Other symptoms have improved.
* A small fraction of persons with severe illness may produce replication-competent virus beyond 10 days that may warrant extending duration of isolation and precautions for up to 20 days after symptom onset. Consider consultation with infection control experts.
Persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 who never develop COVID-19 symptoms may discontinue isolation after at least 10 days following the date of their positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.