What to do when exposed to COVID-19

When you’ve had close contact or live with someone who has COVID-19, you can choose to stay home and away from others if you can, especially those at high risk of getting sick from COVID-19. But you are not required to.

Get tested 3 to 5 days after you were first exposed. You can take either an antigen or a PCR test after a close contact. If you test positive, you should stay away from others for 5 days.

You should consider testing earlier than 3 to 5 days to find out if you’re positive so you can:

• Get access to early treatment, especially if you’re at risk of severe COVID-19 illness
• Let people know earlier that they might have been exposed

You should wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days after you had the close contact. Masking is especially important when:

• Indoors, including around others at home
• Around people who have a high risk of severe COVID-19 disease

The virus is more likely to spread in the first 10 days. Wearing a mask around others for 10 days will lower the risk of you spreading the virus, in case you have it.

If you test positive, you should stay away from others to stop the spread of the virus.

If you develop COVID-19 symptoms, it is strongly recommended that you stay away from others until you get tested.

You are at risk of having the virus if:

• You were indoors with someone who has COVID-19
• The time indoors was 15 minutes or longer

You are at risk even if you and others were wearing masks during the time of contact.

Someone can have COVID-19 for 2 days before they start feeling sick or have a positive test. During this time, they can infect others.

They are at risk of spreading COVID-19 for up to 10 days from when they started feeling sick or tested positive, unless they test negative days 5 to 9.