COVID-19 Symptoms

Symptoms

COVID-19 may cause mild to severe respiratory symptoms, like:

• Cough
• Fever
• Trouble breathing, and
• Pneumonia

CDC believes at this time that symptoms may appear in as few as 2 days or as long as 14 days after exposure to the virus.

Prevention

Everyone should:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially before you eat.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Keep a distance of at least 6 feet to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
• Cover your cough and sneezes with a tissue and discard it in a closed container.
• Clean frequently touched surfaces and objects.

For people who are sick:

• Stay home.
• If you have a fever, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without the use of fever-reducing medicines, such as acetaminophen.
• Keep sick household members away from others. If you have a separate room that is best.
• Use soap and water, a bleach and water solution, or EPA-approved household products. You can make your own cleanser with a mixture of 1 cup of liquid unscented chlorine bleach in 5 gallons of water.
• Avoid sharing personal items.
• Anyone at high risk for complications should talk to their healthcare provider for more information.

Public Service Announcement

Calling All Makers With 3D Printers: Join Critical Mission To Make Face Masks And Shields For 2020 Healthcare Workers

March 25 Update: I continue to update and modify this post, usually at the end, unless noted as Update in the middle (just a couple).

After seeing the N95 shortage gripping the nation’s healthcare workers, HP Inc. and partners have mobilized to create 3D printed face mask and face shield solutions, plus a few other innovative ideas, to keep people safe during the COVID-19 outbreak. 

HP is, of course, one of the largest and best known companies in the world, putting their enormous might alongside other efforts to create alternate personal protection equipment (PPE) is significant (and needed). However, they are not the only ones doing this and I will share a number of initiatives taking place from small to large (including some of the ones I mentioned in the DIY Face Mask post as well as the N95 Mask post). 

Update: I forgot to mention Materialise as one of HP’s partners and they created a number of free to download files for COVID-19 prevention, including the Hands-Free 3D-Printed Door Opener found on the HP site above, plus a Shopping Cart Handle.

This ongoing GoFundMe: Save Lives w 3D Printed Face Shields is impressive and inspiring — this is a team of high school students in the Charlotte Latin School covering K-12 with a FabLab. Read their mission and overview and tell me you are not blown away by the effort these young people are making (led by two MD parents with children at the school).

In support of the #MillionMaskChallenge on Twitter, the engineering team at Charlotte Latin intend to 3D print face shields that will be provided to local hospitals in Charlotte, starting with the Levine Cancer Institute. The goal? To manufacture 10,000 face shields. Bravo.

MatterHackers, the largest distributor of desktop digital manufacturing equipment and materials in the USA, is arguably one of the dominant 3D printing voices in social media and they often rally behind various community initiatives. I am not surprised to see them drop everything and hit this virus with everything they can. Dave Gaylord, Chief Technical Officer, comes from a Medical Device R&D and manufacturing background and is passionately ensuring MatterHackers connects those in need with those who can make. 

The MatterHackers initiative is called the COVID-19 Additive Manufacturing Community Response Hub and it will “connect those in the U.S. who need medical aid (Hospitals and Govt. Agencies) and those who can create it using Digital Manufacturing, for which MatterHackers has a broad base of customers to engage with.” It has been live for three days and hundreds have signed up.

Formlabs has an impressive medical capability with its 3D printers (before COVID-19) and opened up its networks and printers to help with a tiny item of critical concern to the medical community: COVID-19 Test Kit Swabs (Check out the detailed photo below). The site lists out several designs. Their PR rep messaged me to say: