What is Coronavirus?

What is Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Coronavirus outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and was named coronavirus disease 2019, which is now commonly seen as its abbreviated name COVID-19. How did they come up with the abbreviation, COVID – 19?

Here is the breakdown:

 ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona’

 ‘VI’ stands for Virus

 ‘D’ stands for Disease

COVID-19 is a mild to severe respiratory illness that is easily transmitted by respiratory droplets or by touching contaminated surfaces.

What are the symptoms?

There can be a wide range of symptoms and some of the symptoms are very similar to what you would experience with the common flu. Symptoms can very person to person and can range from mild symptoms to severe illness, and can appear within 2-14 days after being exposed to the virus.

Listed below are some of COVID related symptoms that have been reported, and what you should look out for.

• – Fever or chills
• – Cough
• – Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• – Fatigue
• – Muscle or body aches
• – Headache
• – New loss of taste or smell
• – Sore throat
• – Congestion or runny nose
• – Nausea or vomiting
• – Diarrhea

What can you do to protect yourself?

COVID can appear within 2-14 days after being exposed, so there is no way to see if someone you are around is carrying the virus (scary, I know!) but you can take the follow precautions to help prevent your exposure to the virus!

• – Wear a mask or cloth face covering that covers your nose and mouth
• – Wash your Hands with soap and water for 20 secs
• – Use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% Alcohol and rub until your hands feel dry
• – Avoid Touching your eyes, nose and mouth
• – Social Distance
  
  • – Maintain at least a 6 ft distance between others
• – Always make sure to cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze.
  
  • – Remember, cough into your elbow and turn away from people.
• – Clean and disinfect highly touched surfaces
  
  • – Tables, Doorknobs, Light switches, counter tops, phones, toilets, money etc. 
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