Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health estimates that 108,182 Utahns have now recovered from COVID-19. That's about 3% of Utah's entire population. But while there is lots and lots of guidance online for how to avoid getting COVID-19 in the first place, there isn't as much guidance for those who have already contracted it.
Part of that is because there is so much still unknown about the virus. For instance, medical experts didn't know for a long time whether someone could be reinfected with COVID-19 or how long someone is immune after they have it.
Recovered Utahns may have hoped that getting over the virus would give them immunity and free rein to resume their pre-pandemic way of life. But medical experts say there's simply not enough information on coronavirus reinfection rates or immunity to advise that.
In other words, recovered Utahns should take the same precautions — wearing masks, physical distancing, hand hygiene — as everyone else.
Dr. Todd Vento is an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare told KSL.com there are three main things to keep in mind for Utahns who've recovered from COVID-19.
When to leave isolation
When Vento saw his very first coronavirus patient in Utah, Mark Jorgensen, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that COVID-19 patients needed two consecutive negative tests, taken at least 24 hours apart, to leave isolation. But as Jorgensen's isolation at his St. George home dragged on and on, the CDC revised its guidelines, which are largely still being used today.
The CDC now recommends that patients can leave isolation if:
- It has been 10 days since symptoms first appeared (or, if asymptomatic, 10 days since their first positive test); and
- The patient has been fever-free for 24 hours or more (without the aid of fever-reducing medication); and
- Other symptoms are improving (except loss of taste or smell, which can linger after infection).
"That is now guidance that we would first tell people," Vento said. "If you had COVID, and you had symptoms, you should consider yourself infectious to others for 10 days from the onset of symptoms."
But two factors can complicate that timeline. Patients who have severe COVID-19 cases — as in, were hospitalized and required oxygen — might be infectious longer, Vento said. Same for patients who have compromised immune systems for other reasons, like cancer treatment. Vento recommended that such patients self-isolate for up to three weeks or until they receive a negative test.
Watch for post-COVID complications
Some coronavirus patients, commonly called "long-haulers," can experience symptoms for more than 30 days. Such lingering symptoms often include general fatigue, shortness of breath and loss of taste or smell. "You might see that you don't fully recover right away. This might not be like your regular cold or flu," Vento said.
Vento said post-COVID patients also appear at greater risk for clotting disorders, with blood clots forming in veins and lungs. Some young COVID-19 patients are also being diagnosed with MIS-C, a rare complication involving the swelling of internal organs.
"If you were to have any of these symptoms," Vento said, your doctor "would like to know about that. ... If you have a new shortness of breath, it might not be because of the COVID — it might be because the COVID increased your risk for having a clot in your legs, or a clot in your lungs, and we would then need to diagnose that and treat that differently."
'Behave like you've not been infected'
With a handful of confirmed cases of coronavirus reinfection, as well as uncertainty about antibodies and the length of immunity for recovered patients, Vento said those recovered should "100 percent" continue wearing a mask, social distancing, avoiding groups and practicing good hygiene.
"Because we have evidence of reinfection, we know we have high community transmission, and we don't have serologic, or antibody, evidence of clear immunity in many people who've been infected," Vento said. "So we always tell individuals who've been infected: We think you can still be at risk for reinfection, and you should behave like you've not been infected."
It's sometimes difficult to parse which individuals have been reinfected versus the ones who never got over the virus in the first place. And there have been some studies that suggest antibodies could be present for several months. But Vento said there's "a lot of variability" in studies on immunity.
"We have more evidence that shows that some people just don't make antibodies," Vento said. "Or, some people make antibodies and then they lose them very quickly. And we do have some studies that clearly show that the sicker you are, the more likely you are to form an antibody; but you may not keep that antibody for an extended period of time. Some patients have, and they've shown antibodies over three, six months. But it's not in high numbers."
There's a lot of research left to do on reinfection and immunity, Vento said. But the research in one area is already clear: Masks work and Utahns should wear them whether they've had the coronavirus or not.
"We have the data on the mask use," Vento said. "It works."
