12 March, 2020
If you have been notified that you may have had an exposure to a close contact or a presumptive positive COVID-19, the Hopkinton Health Department offers the following guidelines for clarification. Please note that the CDC would consider contact with a contact exposure as “no identifiable” risk for transmission, but we have decided as a department to provide our residents education about symptoms of COVID-19 and the incubation period.
● If the affected individual has no symptoms we would ask them to actively monitor for any symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days from their last potential date of exposure.
● If the affected individual has symptoms which do not include cough, shortness of breath, and fever we are recommending that they stay home from work, school, and other public activities for 14 days from their last potential date of exposure.
● If the affected individual were to have symptoms of a cough, fever, or shortness of breath during the potential incubation period, we require that they immediately isolate themselves and contact the Health Department for further instructions.
We know that symptoms of COVID-19 can occur from 2-14 days from the last possible exposure. Symptoms of COVID-19 seem to peak between 4-7 days from exposure.The symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19 are:
- Fever or subjective fever - Cough - Shortness of breath - Chills - Muscles aches - Runny nose - Sore throat - Nausea and vomiting - Abdominal pain - Diarrhea
