Covid update: When is a person most contagious? Period of infection explained

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, the chances that you will be exposed and get sick continue to increase. If you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to experience symptoms of the disease, you may be asked to self-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, how soon after you’re infected will you start to be contagious? And what happens inside the body during an infection and a possible reinfection?

Both the latent period and the incubation both start at the same time when the virus first enters into the cells of the body.

A person is not immediately infectious once the virus gets inside the body.

The novel coronavirus first has to get into the respiratory tract cells, it then ‘hijacks’ these cells and reproduces.

Once enough new viruses are produced and released, a person starts shedding the virus and becomes highly contagious.

Most people who are infected with the COVID-19 virus produce antibodies, which are proteins that make it harder for the virus to infect cells, said Health Harvard.

The health site continued: “But antibodies are only one part of the body’s immune response. T cells, for example, can destroy cells that are already infected.

“And memory B cells can quickly generate a strong antibody response to a virus the body has encountered before.

“Antibody levels typically fall once the immediate threat of infection declines.

“Several new studies have found that COVID-19 antibody levels decline, but then stabilize and remain in the blood even two to three months after infection.

“Other recent studies found COVID-specific B cells and T cells in the blood, months after people recovered.

“This all suggests that the immune system would be ready to react quickly and strongly if re-exposed to the COVID-19 virus.”

source: express.co.uk