I've Been Exposed
What it means, and what you need to do.
You don’t need to quarantine.
For 10 days, wear a high-quality, well-fitted mask if you're around others. That will help keep you from spreading the virus if you're infectedbut don’t have symptoms. Don't travel anywhere if you can't wear good mask whenever you're on public transportation or around other people indoors in public.
Get tested at least 5 days after you were exposed. If you're using a rapid test and you test negative, the safest thing to do is to test yourself two more times, with 48 hours between each test.
If you get symptoms, isolate yourself and get tested. Stay home and masked until you know the results. If you're using a rapid test and you test negative, the safest thing to do is to continue to isolate and test yourself again in 48 hours. If you test negative a second time, you can end isolation but should continue to mask until the full 10 days are up.
Whenever you use a rapid test, report your result using this link — whether you test positive or negative.
Because we now have a better understanding of how COVID-19 spreads, the CDC’s “close contact” definition is now to be used only for contact-tracing purposes. Even if you’re not a close contact, you could still have been exposed to the virus. To figure out if you were, think about the following:
How long were you with the infected person? Longer = More likely to have been exposed
Was that person coughing, singing, shouting, or breathing heavily? Yes = More likely to have been exposed
Did the infected person have symptoms? Yes = More likely to have been exposed
Were you and/or the infected person wearing good masks? No = More likely to have been exposed
How well-ventilated was the space you were in? Worse ventilation = More likely to have been exposed
How close was the infected person to you? Closer = More likely to have been exposed
If your answers to a few of these land you in “more likely to be exposed” territory, you were exposed. Here's what you need to do. For more details, see the CDC website.
The closer you are to someone with COVID, the more likely it is that you’ll breathe in enough virus to get infected. Six feet of distance isn't magic. COVID travels through the air in tiny bits of moisture called aerosols. They can sometimes float much farther than 6 feet. They can also stay in the air for a long time.
If you're outdoors, aerosols carrying COVID get mixed into a huge amount of air. If you stay far away from other people, the air you breathe probably won't have much COVID in it. That means you're less likely to get infected.
If you're indoors, aerosols that carry COVID get mixed into the air in the room. That's a lot less air. The longer you’re in a room with someone who has COVID, the more likely you are to breathe in enough virus to get infected, too.