COVID-19 is spread person-to-person through respiratory droplets, like other diseases caused by the family of viruses known as coronaviruses. To minimize infection risk, recommended steps include:

• Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds or using hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol
• Avoiding close contact (within six feet) with people who are sick
• Following quarantine protocols
• Practicing social distancing when making trips to the store, pharmacy, or other public places
• Avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
• Staying home when you are sick
• Covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and discarding the tissue

The Veterinary Medical Center and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories are in need of homemade masks. Here’s how you can help.

Symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and/or new loss of taste or smell may appear 2–14 days after exposure to COVID-19.

If you begin to show symptoms, have recently traveled to or from an area with an ongoing spread of COVID-19, or have been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19, contact your healthcare provider, who will work with guidance from public health officials to determine if you need to be tested.

To protect others from the risk of infection, CDC recommends that face masks be worn by those who have COVID-19 and show symptoms or by individuals in public places who are unable to practice social distancing. CDC does not recommend wearing face masks as an effective means of protecting oneself from infection.