U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Posted Coronavirus Symptom Checklist Online

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s online check tool for coronavirus symptoms is for every person who is confused about its symptoms. One major thing that is adding up to coronavirus stress is the uncertainty of its symptoms and disease progression. There are chances that the virus is already inside your body and still it can successfully deceive you.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says that; “There’s a lot of symptoms here that are going to be nonspecific, as with any upper respiratory infection, and the fact is that many cases of coronavirus are very mild.” He further added; “You’re going to have people who don’t know what to do.”

Dr. Gary Procop is a certified clinical pathologist, MD, and co-chair of Enterprise Laboratory Stewardship Committee at Cleveland Clinic He says; “They’re trying to get anybody who needs emergency medical attention to seek help immediately. All of the other diseases we have are still going on while we’re in the middle of the COVID crisis, right?”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has posted online symptom checkers to clear confusion in the public regarding the manifestations of coronavirus. Upon reaching this web tool, you will be asked if you need assistance or anyone around you who needs this information. Then it asks you about the basic information for example age and sex. It further asks a series of symptoms whether or not you are experiencing these. All these symptoms are not only confined to coronavirus but also include other diseases.

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For example; it asks if you are experiencing turning blue of lips, pain, pressure, lightheadedness, seizures, dizziness or weakness. After gathering all this information this tool then asks about your contact with a potentially infected or sick person in the last two weeks. It is to determine your possible interaction with the coronavirus.

The tool also asks if you are experiencing the characteristic symptoms of coronavirus that are, fever, cough, difficulty in breathing, and if you are living in any hospital, nursing home or any care facility. You also have to add your history of medical illnesses especially about serious diseases such as heart, lungs, kidney and autoimmune diseases.

After you answer all these questions, the tool will evaluate your data and advise if you should stay at home in isolation or need immediate medical care.

Among many other things, this basic self-evaluation for coronavirus is helpful for people who suspect that they are infected. Adalja shared that; “We don’t want people coming to the emergency department or doctor’s offices unnecessarily. Anything that can decrease the load on hospitals and health care facilities is helpful.”

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Procop also agreed to this and said; “Unless you’re in dire straits, we don’t want folks with mild or moderate symptoms coming to the emergency department. We would like to have a more controlled manner of introducing them into the health care setting.”

He also said that; “Let’s say someone did this profile and they were only mildly ill. They’re probably not going to take up a bed anyway, but they could just show up in the emergency department, expose all the other people in the waiting room and potentially expose caregivers.”

This CDC’s online tool is not the only symptom checker. There are many other symptom tracking apps that you can download on your are smartphones and evaluate yourself. One of these apps is developed by King’s College London. With 750,000 downloads only within days of its launch, this  C-19 COVID Symptom Tracker would soon be available in the USA too.