(CDC): Interactive tool on when to test yourself and how long to quarantine if exposed to corona

 

(CDC) contains an interactive tool on when to test yourself and how long to quarantine if exposed to corona

The CDC finally has a simple interactive tool that tells you when to test yourself and how long to quarantine if exposed to COVID. Here's how it works.

The CDC advises waiting a few days after being exposed to the rapid test.

The CDC has released a new test that tells you the best time to get tested, how long to isolate, and whether to wear a mask if exposed to COVID.

The tool only requires answering a few simple questions, which results in you getting answers in 3-4 clicks.

Insider reporter Hilary Brook tried it out, and she explained how to use it.

After two years of confusing instructions about when to isolate or quarantine for COVID-19, how to test, when to re-emerge in the community, and how long the masking lasts next, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally built a simple 3-4 click tool to determine exactly how long to isolate and wear a mask around other people, if you have:

You have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, or

You have been tested for COVID-19 yourself.

Like an online test, the tool is a more personalized and straightforward approach than the detailed, loaded guidelines the CDC came up with last winter.

Here are the steps on how to use the handy new tool.

Head to the isolation and isolation page on the CDC website and click Get Started.

CDC Isolation and Isolation Page Image

A blue and white popup should load on your screen. Click the option that relates to your situation: Was the test result positive, or were you just exposed to someone else with COVID?

Screenshot of the CDC quarantine tool

If you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 and have already contracted the virus, you may not test positive until several more days have passed. During this incubation period, you can inadvertently pass the infection to others.

Be careful for ten days, regardless of whether you have been exposed or have tested positive.

If you've been around someone with COVID, but they haven't tested positive yourself, the tool will ask whether or not you've had COVID recently.

A previous delta infection cannot necessarily protect you from the currently circulating Omicron variant and its sublines. Still, an initial condition with Omicron may mean that you are well protected against reinfection, at least for now.

If you've had COVID in the last 90 days, the tool suggests that you don't need to isolate it at home — unless you develop telltale symptoms of the virus. You also do not need to take the test.

For those who haven't been exposed to a COVID infection recently, the tool suggests getting a test six days after your exposure, and wearing a mask for ten days around other people, to keep any potential germs to yourself:

If you test positive for COVID, the test will ask you whether or not you have symptoms.

If you have symptoms of COVID-19, the tool will calculate how long you need to be isolated based on when your symptoms started and whether you have a fever. If you have a fever, the tool asks you to stay at home for at least five full days and reassess the situation.

Screenshot of CDC isolation tool - if you have a fever that can't be counted yet.

If you don't have a fever, the tool recommends staying home for six days since symptoms began and then wearing a mask around others for the remaining four days to keep contagious.

Most people become infected before they become infected and remain that way for about a week, but individual cases vary.

Suppose you show no signs or symptoms of infection (widespread with COVID). In that case, the tool will calculate how long you need to isolate based on when you test, recommend a full six days at home after testing positive, then wear a mask for four days after that, when it's around others.

Regardless of which option applies to you, the goal is to keep germs to yourself (by isolating, then masking others who may get sick) for at least ten full days of testing positive, exposure to COVID, or showing symptoms.

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