How to self-quarantine if you think you have coronavirus

Maybe you have a cough or a fever. Maybe it’s allergies. You’re not sure whether you have COVID-19. Do you need to self-quarantine?

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local public health experts, if you have good reason to believe you have been exposed to novel coronavirus and are showing symptoms consistent with the virus, it’s time to isolate at home.

But what does that mean exactly?

“Essentially, public health officials are telling those showing symptoms of respiratory illness to quarantine themselves. It doesn’t matter if you have a cold or the flu, COVID-19 or even allergies. Stay home if you’re showing symptoms and for a few days after symptoms have ceased,” Placer County’s health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson told The Sacramento Bee last week.

People who are mildly ill should stay home from work, school and other public activities for at least 14 days, according to the CDC. Furthermore, you should isolate yourself from family members or roommates by sticking to one room in your home — and even using a separate bathroom if possible.

People who believe they are sick should contact their health care providers before leaving their homes to seek medical care.

“If you have a medical appointment, call the health care provider and tell them that you have or may have COVID-19,” the CDC said. “This will help the health care provider’s office take steps to keep other people from getting infected or exposed.”

If you do have to leave your home for a medical appointment, make sure you wear a face mask when you are around other people and avoid using public transportation, the CDC said. Also, wash your hands often and for at least 20 seconds “especially after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing; going to the bathroom; and before eating or preparing food,” the CDC said.

It’s also important to clean and disinfect “high touch” surfaces, including countertops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, tablets, phones, toilets and bedside tables.

The CDC also recommends isolating yourself from pets. Even though there are no known cases of animals becoming sick with COVID-19, health officials still advise people to not pet, snuggle, or share food with their pets until more is known about the virus.

If you need food or groceries during this period, you can use delivery services such as Postmates and Instacart, which are offering no-contact delivery service and having your items left outside your door.

For people who may have been exposed but are not showing symptoms, you can self-quarantine, which means staying at home for at least two weeks to see if symptoms emerge.

However, public health officials told The Bee last week they are no longer fully pursuing that strategy, saying mitigation rather than containment is now the goal.

“The data from China show that the symptomatic people are the primary drivers of transmission, but undoubtedly, there is some asymptomatic transmission occurring, too. That’s why the mitigation strategies are so important,” said Gerald Parker, who served as an assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“If you’re in a vulnerable population, you should avoid going to large gatherings because other people at the large gathering may be asymptomatic and spreading,” Parker told The Bee.

If you do develop symptoms, stay at home until a health care provider instructs you to leave and the “risk of secondary transmission to others is thought to be low,” the CDC said.

Sacramento resident Beau Arbios, 60, self-quarantined himself for over a week when he came down with flu-like symptoms.

“I work in a hardware store where it’s really busy . . . and I got sick,” he said in a phone interview with The Bee.

Arbios had traveled to his 93-year-old mother’s house to help her prepare for home isolation when he started feeling ill.

He immediately isolated himself to a bedroom, he said.

“I’m not sure if I had coronavirus or not, but I couldn’t risk giving (my mother) the flu or anything,” he said. “So I knew I just had to stay in my bedroom. I couldn’t leave my bedroom except to go to a dedicated bathroom.”

Arbios had a high fever for four days and said he had very little appetite, spending much of his time in isolation listening to music on his phone and sleeping.

He also said he was in regular contact with his healthcare provider, who advised him on what to do. He stayed in his bedroom with the door shut and used his cell phone to communicate with his mom.

For meals, she would leave meals on a chair outside the bedroom door, and Arbios would retrieve them after she left. He said paper plates and disposable dishes were important to have so his mom wouldn’t have to handle any dishes he had used and risk transmission. He kept his trash in a plastic bag in the room and only disposed of it after he was cleared to leave quarantine, he said.

After being free of fever for four days without the help of fever reducers, his doctor cleared him to leave, he said. In all, he said he lost 20 pounds in less than a week.

Arbios suggested that people who are now self-quarantined or isolated at home make sure they have disposable dishes on hand and keep a cell phone and charger in the bedroom where they are staying.

“I think people really need to understand that whoever is sick, they need to stay in that room,” he said. “You can’t go out spreading that around.”

This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 2:30 PM with the headline "How to self-quarantine if you think you have coronavirus."