COVID-19: Have Symptoms or Been Exposed

Some people may experience mild or no physical symptoms. Symptoms can take up to 14 days after exposure to COVID-19 to appear, and include new or worsening:

• Fever
• Cough
• Difficulty breathing
• Sore throat
• Runny nose
• Loss of taste or smell
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
• Difficulty swallowing

If you are having difficulty breathing, call 911.

Disease symptoms may be different, depending on age. Children and older adults with COVID-19, may also have non-specific symptoms, such as:

• disorientation, confusion
• sleeping more than usual or muscle aches
• dizziness, weakness or falls
• chills, headaches

Rarely, children can get an inflammatory condition that impacts the blood vessels, called vasculitis. It can present with prolonged fever, abdominal pain, red eyes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and rash. It needs medical attention.

For others, there is a higher risk for severe illness, including people over the age of 60, and those with weakened immunity or underlying health conditions.

French Resource:

• Symptoms reference sheet (Document de référence sur les symptômes) (Ministry of Health)

If you have been advised by Telehealth, your health care provider, or your local public health unit to self-monitor, follow Public Health Ontario’s instructions on how to self-monitor.

Instructions on how to self-monitor are also available in: French | Arabic | Bengali | Simplified Chinese | Traditional Chinese | Eastern Ojibwe | Farsi | German | Greek | Gujarati | Hindi | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Mohawk | Oji-Cree | Polish | Portuguese | Punjabi | Romanian | Russian | Somali | Spanish | Swampy Cree | Tagalog | Tamil | Ukrainian | Urdu | Vietnamese

For your protection, you should take extra precautions if:

• You have a weakened immune system
• You have a medical condition

You must isolate yourself from others if:

• You have COVID-19, or
• You have COVID-19 symptoms, or
• You have been exposed to someone who has COVID-19, or
• Someone in your household was exposed to someone who has COVID-19, has symptoms and is awaiting their test results, or
• You have returned from anywhere outside Canada, including the United States, within the past 14 days, or
• You received a notification on the COVID Alert app and you are awaiting test results.

Follow Public Health Ontario’s instructions on how to self-isolate.

Instructions on how to self-isolate are also available in: French | Arabic | Bengali | Simplified Chinese | Traditional Chinese | Eastern Ojibwe | Farsi | German | Greek | Gujarati | Hindi | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Mohawk | Oji-Cree | Polish | Portuguese | Punjabi | Romanian | Russian | Somali | Spanish | Swampy Cree | Tagalog | Tamil | Ukrainian | Urdu | Vietnamese

There is no specific treatment for COVID-19. People who have COVID-19 should receive supportive health care to help relieve symptoms. People with more severe illness may require hospitalization.

If symptoms feel worse than a standard cold, call your health care practitioner. They can relieve symptoms by prescribing a pain or fever medication.

You should also:

• Drink plenty of fluids
• Get rest and sleep as much as possible
• Try a humidifier or a hot shower to help with a sore throat or cough

There is a test for COVID-19. The test tells you if you have the infection right now.

You should get tested for COVID-19 if:

• You have one or more symptoms of COVID-19, even if they are mild;
• You have been exposed to a confirmed case of COVID-19, as informed by public health or through the COVID Alert app;
• Public health has asked you to get tested (e.g. there are cases of COVID-19 in your workplace or school); or
• You are eligible for testing as part of a targeted testing initiative directed by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Long-Term Care or other Ministries.

Learn more about COVID-19 testing

Toronto Public Health offices are not an assessment centre and testing is not provided at our offices.

Not Tested

If you were not tested but have symptoms of COVID-19, and you were not a close contact of someone with COVID-19, you will have to self-isolate for 10 days from when your symptoms started.  Household members should continue to self-monitor for 14 days. Household members can continue to attend school or work as long as they do not have symptoms.

If you were not tested but have symptoms of COVID-19 and were a close contact of someone who had COVID-19, you will have to continue to self-isolate for 10 days from when your symptoms started.  Household members will need to self-isolate for 14 days and get tested if they develop symptoms.  They cannot attend school or work until COVID-19 is ruled out.

Due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in Toronto, Toronto Public Health is temporarily changing how we do contact tracing. We will be focusing our efforts on the highest risk situations. This means people who have COVID-19 and whose infection poses the most risk to others. For the time being, Toronto Public Health will not be contacting the contacts of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Toronto Public Health will continue to contact people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to:

• Confirm their positive COVID-19 lab test results.
• Assess their symptoms, and determine when they started.
• Confirm their ability to safely self-isolate or refer them to the Toronto Voluntary Isolation Centre.
• Provide instructions on how they can notify their high-risk contacts.

Toronto Pubic Health will also continue to investigate and respond to outbreaks in hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes, shelters, schools, and child care settings, as usual.

When the number of COVID-19 cases in Toronto returns to a manageable level, Toronto Public Health will resume its regular contact tracing process.

Download this information as a PDF.

There are no tests for staff to do to be cleared to return to work.

In general, staff can return to work 10 days after their symptoms began if they had COVID-19.

For other illnesses, or if someone tested negative for COVID-19, they should not return to work until they no longer have a fever and symptoms are improving for at least 24 hours.

If a staff was a close contact of someone who had COVID-19 then they must self-isolate for 14 days.