You should restrict activities outside your home, except for getting medical care. Under no circumstance should you go to work, school, or public areas. Avoid using public transportation, ride sharing, or taxis.
The following instructions are provided to assist you to safely care for yourself or others who are infected or potentially infected with COVID-19.
Your health care provider and public health staff will evaluate whether you can be safely cared for at home. If it is determined that you do not need to be hospitalized and can be isolated at home, you will be monitored by staff from your local health department. You should follow the prevention steps below until a health care provider or local health department says you can return to your normal activities.
You should restrict activities outside your home, except for getting medical care. Under no circumstance should you go to work, school, or public areas. Avoid using public transportation, ride sharing, or taxis.
As much as possible, you should stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. Also, you should use a separate bathroom, if available.
You should restrict contact with pets and other animals while you are sick with COVID-19, just like you would around other people. Although there have not been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with COVID-19, it is still recommended that people with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. When possible, have another member of your household care for your animals while you are sick. If you must care for your pet or be around animals while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with pets and wear a facemask. See COVID-19 and Animals for more information.
If you have a medical appointment, call the health care provider prior to your appointment and tell them that you have or may have COVID-19. This will help the health care provider’s office take steps to keep other people from getting infected or exposed. Ask your health care provider to call the local or state health department. Persons who are placed under active monitoring or facilitated self-monitoring should follow instructions provided by their local health department or occupational health professionals, as appropriate. If you have a medical emergency and need to call 911, notify the dispatch personnel that you have, or are being evaluated for COVID-19. If possible, put on a facemask before emergency medical services arrive.
You might be feeling anxious, afraid, lonely or uncertain. Download this guide for a list of helpful behavioral health resources, and a few tips for taking care of your emotional health while you're quarantined.
You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) or pets, and before you enter a health care provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then people who live with you should not stay in the same room with you, or they should wear a facemask if they enter your room.
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw used tissues in a lined trash can.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Soap and water should be used preferentially if hands are visibly dirty. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Watch this example of how to properly wash your hands.
Clean all high-touch surfaces daily. High-touch surfaces include counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables. Also, clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or body fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe, according to the label instructions. Labels contain instructions for safe and effective use of the cleaning product including precautions you should take when applying the product, such as wearing gloves and making sure you have good ventilation during use of the product.
You should not share dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels or bedding with other people or pets in your home. After using these items, they should be washed thoroughly with soap and water.
Please contact your local or state health department as soon as possible. Persons who are placed under active monitoring or facilitated self-monitoring should follow instructions provided by their local health department or occupational health professionals, as appropriate. View local health department contact information here.
Seek prompt medical attention if your illness is worsening (e.g., difficulty breathing). Before seeking care, call your health care provider and tell them that you have, or are being evaluated for COVID-19. Put on a facemask before you enter the facility. These steps will help the health care provider’s office to keep other people in the office or waiting room from getting infected or exposed.
If you have a medical emergency and need to call 911, notify the dispatch personnel that you have, or are being evaluated for COVID-19. If possible, put on a face mask before emergency medical services arrive.
Patients with confirmed COVID-19 should remain under home isolation precautions until the risk of secondary transmission to others is thought to be low. The decision to discontinue home isolation precautions is made on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with health care providers, and state and local health departments.
If you are providing care for a person infected or suspected to be infected with COVID-19, please note the following. These instructions are also available at CDC.gov.
Household members, intimate partners, and caregivers in a non-health care setting may have close contact (within 6 feet) with a person with symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 or a person under investigation. Those in close contact should monitor their health and should call their health care provider right away if they develop symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 (e.g., fever, cough, shortness of breath).
No. Per guidelines by public health officials and NIU, individuals having to quarantine must do so for the full duration required. Those who have been exposed to the virus and never develop symptoms are required to quarantine, at minimum, a full 10 days before being able to return to campus. All others are required to quarantine for 14 days.
Updated 12/11/20
Information on this page provided in part courtesy of Nebraska Health.