If you have health problems, he first person to consult is usually your family doctor and this is the case with COVID-19 as well. After a positive test for COVID-19, you should contact your doctor quickly and discuss what you need to do.

The type of treatment depends on how the illness progresses in each individual case. If the symptoms are mild, it is not usually necessary to consult a specialist. In such cases, it is usually sufficient to rest and treat the individual symptoms, such as cough and fever, as necessary.

For patients who are at increased risk of becoming severely ill, antiviral treatment early on in the illness can also be helpful to prevent it from worsening.

In severe cases, patients typically experience a worsening, including increasing respiratory distress and/or hypoxemia (lack of oxygen in the arterial blood), about 7 to 10 days after the symptoms start.

If you find that your COVID-19 is getting worse, it’s important to call a doctor or the medical standby service quickly so that they can find out whether you need examination and treatment from a specialist or admission to hospital.

Further information about treatment is available at the Federal Health Ministry’s website gesund.bund.de.

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