“If we don’t encourage folks to get outside, we can have a widespread social revolt,” stated Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious illnesses at the College of Alabama at Birmingham. “Persons are already challenged by the isolation imposed by social distancing, and we might be speaking about one other six to eight weeks, perhaps extra in some components of the nation.”

Consultants say in the event you preserve a six-foot distance from different folks, try to be even safer outside than in a closed space.

When open air, “you don’t have to remain six toes away out of your partner or youngster,” stated Maria Raven, chief of emergency drugs at the College of California at San Francisco. “However in case you are assembly a buddy for a hike or going to the grocery retailer, preserve your distance.”

It’s arduous to generalize, Marrazzo stated, as a result of “some 70-year-olds run marathons, so you possibly can’t make a blanket assertion about folks’s dangers.” However situations comparable to persistent obstructive pulmonary illness, coronary heart illness and diabetes elevate folks’s dangers of turning into severely unwell or dying of covid-19, the illness attributable to the coronavirus. And even wholesome seniors, she stated, “don’t get a whole move” on elevated danger.

The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention just lately beneficial that individuals ought to put on face coverings in public locations to gradual unfold of the virus, a reversal of the Trump administration’s earlier suggestions.

The CDC’s web site says the company recommends the coverings for “public settings the place different social distancing measures are tough to keep up (e.g. grocery shops and pharmacies) particularly in areas of great community-based transmission.”

The advice was introduced Friday by President Trump, who pressured the steering was voluntary and stated he wasn’t planning to put on a masks. The steering was issued after a vigorous debate inside the administration. Some officers needed the advice focused primarily to locales which can be being particularly affected by the virus.

However well being officers argued common masking was needed, pointing to new information that reveals a excessive proportion of contaminated folks might not exhibit signs, at the same time as they unfold the virus by emitting droplets after they discuss, sneeze and even exhale. A masks — or some sort of material face overlaying, comparable to a bandanna or scarf — retains these folks from infecting others, they are saying.

Well being officers made clear the basic public ought to keep away from utilizing the sort of gear — N95 respirators or surgical masks — that’s briefly provide and is desperately wanted by health-care staff.

Some specialists say there could also be drawbacks in addition to advantages to sporting masks. Raven says it could give folks a false sense of safety and end in a lessening of social distancing. If a masks is uncomfortable, others say, it could immediate you to the touch your face extra — and by accident infect your self in case your finger is contaminated. Additionally, they stated, there are some indications the moisture that collects might encourage a buildup of viruses and micro organism on a material masks.

It relies upon. When you have been with the individual day and night time for a number of days, it’s possible you’ll already be uncovered. Nonetheless, you possibly can’t know for positive, and medical doctors say it’s clever to err on the aspect of warning and distance your self as a lot as doable.

Most circumstances of covid-19 are delicate, and a partner most likely will have the ability to handle himself or herself. If doable, the unwell partner ought to transfer into an additional bed room, use a distinct rest room and put on a masks to guard others in the family.

In case you are residing with somebody who wants assist, it is best to put on a masks and gloves whereas offering care. In case you are eradicating a dinner plate, for instance, seize it with a dishrag or put on gloves, medical doctors say.

Just a few months into the disaster, we now know the illness has a far wider vary of signs than initially thought. Along with fever, coughing, shortness of breath and different flu-like signs, medical doctors are seeing gastrointestinal issues — nausea and vomiting, for instance — chest ache and a lack of odor. Some medical doctors report mind irritation and pinkeye in sufferers. It’s not clear, physicians say, whether or not the different signs are attributable to covid-19 or are simply occurring at the identical time.

Seek the advice of along with your main care physician, when you have one. Don’t go to the doctor’s workplace or the emergency room with out calling forward. The coronavirus is extremely contagious, and medical doctors wish to defend themselves and different sufferers from an infection. You’ll most likely be suggested to self-quarantine and, as a result of there isn’t any efficient therapy for the illness, to take over-the-counter medicines comparable to Tylenol or Motrin.

If signs worsen, and you’ve got bother respiratory or have underlying medical situations, search rapid medical care.

It relies on the place you reside and even what hospital or well being system you utilize. Some sufferers can have way more entry to testing than others. At UCSF, for instance, the testing has ramped up sharply in current days in the hospital and outpatient clinics, Raven stated. However the well being system doesn’t check individuals who don’t have signs — the so-called frightened properly.

In lots of locations, testing stays sluggish regardless of the entry of economic labs and the approval of recent fast exams by the Meals and Drug Administration. In some circumstances, the labs are merely overwhelmed by the demand. In others, they’re nonetheless fighting shortages of essential gadgets, together with nasal swabs and chemical elements wanted to run the exams.

The FDA hasn’t permitted house exams for covid-19. It has taken a step in that course — it says it’s okay for sufferers to swab their very own nasal passages below the supervision of a health-care employee. However it says it’s nonetheless ready for information exhibiting that house testing will work. Some well being specialists are urgent for such exams, saying they might vastly increase testing. Others worry they might mistakenly inform folks they don’t have covid-19 after they do.

Nobody is aware of, although specialists say the higher the United States is at social distancing, the higher the likelihood the nation will get by this tough time extra rapidly and with fewer severe diseases and deaths. It isn’t clear but whether or not the virus is seasonal and can go away in the hotter months.

Some specialists say locations comparable to New York, which have been hit arduous, would possibly see their peak variety of diseases quickly — in mid-to-late April or shortly thereafter. Different areas which can be simply now exhibiting indicators of the virus spreading by their communities might peak later.

Even after the United States emerges from its most restrictive shutdowns, it’s doable Individuals will nonetheless have to keep up some measures — comparable to isolating the contaminated, common hand-washing, some extent of social distancing — till a viable vaccine is developed, which may take 12 to 18 months.

Joel Achenbach, Ariana Eunjung Cha, Angela Fritz, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Lena H. Solar, and William Wan contributed to this report.