People commonly believe that catching COVID-19 is like catching the flu. It is not. As my previous post and NIH's Dr. Fauci indicated, COVID-19 is roughly 10 x more deadly. So how do you tell whether you have COVID-19 as opposed to the flu or other viral respiratory infections, such as the common cold?
According to the most recent published data, far and away, the most common symptoms are fever and cough, followed muscle aches, fatigue, and phlegm production. Runny nose or nasal congestion is actually unusual and probably a good indication you do not have COVID-19. Some degree of shortness of breath occurred in approximately 20%, suggesting possible onset of inflammation of the lungs, which is the most worrisome complication of the infection.
As one may surmise, long incubation period + high incidence of cough = highly contagious.
Prolonged quarantine is pretty much all you can do to prevent transmission of disease. Public officials have routinely rely on self-quarantine as understandably, there just aren't mass quarantine facilities, and it'd be impossible to build out and impractical to run such facilities. Of course, invariably, there are those who will disobey, be cavalier, and put others at risk, and the officials know this. Now that there is community transmission, this disease will run its course through the country, and there is no stopping it. The best we can hope for is to flatten the curve, decrease transmission rate, and avoid overwhelming our healthcare facilities. If we run out of hospital beds or ventilators to use, more people will die.
What's the best method to NOT become ill with this disease? SELF-ISOLATION: stay home, wear mask if you have to go out, wash your hands if you touch anything others have touched, keep your distance.