Recommended screening techniques don’t catch every case of COVID-19. Asymptomatic travelers can get on a plane well and develop symptoms upon arriving to their destination. If you have COVID-19 symptoms once you arrive to Las Vegas, it is imperative that you get checked for the virus, not only for your own safety, but the safety of those around you. We are in another wave of increased virus diagnoses and we need to be our own first line of defense, especially when traveling. No one wants to be far away from family and get sick on an out of town trip.
Here is a list of the symptoms of COVID-19 to do a self-check:
Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
Look for emergency warning signs for COVID-19. If someone is showing any of these signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:
- Trouble breathing
- Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
- New confusion
- Inability to wake or stay awake
- Bluish lips or face
Call your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you. (CDC 2020)
You can also take the Google self-assessment here: Self-Assessment Link
Combining Rapid PCR and Antibody Tests Improve COVID-19 Diagnosis
Nose and throat swab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing can miss up to 50% of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, in part because the virus may have already cleared the upper respiratory tract. But by then, patients may have developed antibodies against the virus. An approach that combines rapid PCR and antibody testing could help physicians quickly diagnose more cases, a recent small study of hospitalized patients with suspected COVID-19 suggested. (Abbasi, 2020)
PCR tests are used to directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies. By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on. (Kent, 2020)
Rapid PCR testing is available, but not yet widely available. Increasingly, medical experts are working on creating accurate and rapid tests for COVID-19 that people could take before traveling or so that they could avoid a quarantine when arriving in Las Vegas.
How PCR Testing Works
Sometimes called “molecular photocopying,” the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a fast and inexpensive technique used to “amplify” – copy – small segments of DNA. Because significant amounts of a sample of DNA are necessary for molecular and genetic analysis, studies of isolated pieces of DNA are nearly impossible without PCR amplification. (Genome.gov 2020)
Rapid PCR Testing is now available at our facility. If your symptoms rapidly decline, a lab test taking 24 or more hours may mean the difference between survival or the virus becoming life-threatening.
Staying well while you visit Las Vegas is the goal of our collective community. If you visit our city and find yourself experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or have self-diagnosed COVID-19 and have worsening symptoms, we can perform a rapid PCR test to allow for a fast, accurate result.
Works Cited
“Symptoms of Coronavirus.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oct. 2020, http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html.
Abbasi, Jennifer. “Combining Rapid PCR and Antibody Tests Improved COVID-19 Diagnosis.” JAMA, JAMA Network, 13 Oct. 2020, jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771584.
Kent, Chloe. “Different Paths to the Same Destination: Screening for Covid-19.” Medical Device Network@2x, 22 Oct. 2020, www.medicaldevice-network.com/features/types-of-covid-19-test-antibody-pcr-antigen/.
“Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Fact Sheet.” Genome.gov, 17 Aug. 2020, www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Polymerase-Chain-Reaction-Fact-Sheet.
