Coronavirus cases are increasing with each passing day and this has made people hyperaware. People are so paranoid that they are thinking about the last time they had a cough or fever. Is there any chance of that actually being COVID-19?
This is quite possible because the deadly infection has a wide band of symptoms and sometimes they are barely noticeable. Moreover, most of the people who suffer the infection are asymptomatic and show very mild symptoms.
By now we all know that the main symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and shortness of breath. These are very common symptoms of the flu or a bad cold. Therefore it is quite possible that some of us may have already been struck by the deadly virus and recovered without even realising it.
There is evidence to prove that that the coronavirus started spreading in the United States earlier than scientists started tracking it.
Lee Riley, chair of the division of infectious disease and vaccinology at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, was quoted as saying by a website that virus started spreading at least two weeks before the first death because of COVID-19 was reported.
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These things combined together hint that people could have been infected with COVID-19 and recovered. However, there’s no effective way to prove it.
“At this point, we don’t have a test to tell that,” William Hillmann, an associate inpatient physician director at Massachusetts General Hospital, told The Guardian.
“We are developing antibody tests to check for prior infection, but those aren’t ready for clinical use yet,” Hillmann added. “The only definitive way to know that you’ve had it is to get tested while you have it and to have that test be positive.”
This is why it extremely important to strictly follow social distancing norms so that no one else gets infected. This is important because it is believed that you remain contagious long after you stop feeling sick.
