What to Do If You Get COVID-19 Earlier than the Holidays

The dreaded situation has occurred: you’ve examined constructive for COVID-19 on the worst time, with vacation journey, events, or household gatherings simply days away. Does this imply your plans are doomed?

Even practically three years into the pandemic, the reply is surprisingly difficult.

The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) says most individuals with gentle COVID-19 can finish isolation 5 full days after taking a constructive check or the start of signs, so long as they’ve been fever-free for twenty-four hours and their different signs are enhancing. The CDC considers the day you took your constructive check or developed signs to be day zero; your five-day isolation interval begins the subsequent day.

That mentioned, there’s a distinction between ending isolation and flying to attend a giant vacation gathering. Via day 10, the CDC recommends staying away from individuals at excessive danger of extreme COVID-19, resembling those that are aged or immunocompromised. If you can be round others, the company says to put on a high-quality masks, resembling an N95 or KN95. You may ditch the masks earlier than day 10 when you check damaging on two separate antigen assessments taken 48 hours aside, the CDC says.

That pair of damaging outcomes isn’t assured, even after 5 days of isolation. In a current JAMA Community Open research, 80% of individuals with symptomatic COVID-19 throughout the first Omicron surge examined constructive on speedy assessments for longer than 5 days.

Briefly: you may nonetheless check constructive, and doubtlessly stay contagious, after an preliminary five-day isolation. What does that imply on your vacation plans? We requested two specialists—Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medication on the College of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Tara Bouton, an assistant professor on the Boston College College of Drugs who has researched COVID-19 isolation durations—to weigh in on a number of eventualities.

In case your plans fall inside 5 days of testing constructive

Keep residence, cancel all journey, and join with family members just about. This recommendation might be arduous to listen to, particularly across the holidays, nevertheless it’s “universally agreed on,” Chin-Hong says.

If it’s been longer than 5 days and also you’re nonetheless testing constructive

In case your signs haven’t improved after 5 days, the CDC says you need to stay in isolation.

In case you really feel wonderful however are nonetheless testing constructive past 5 days, there’s an opportunity you’re nonetheless contagious. “The clear steering is that you just shouldn’t be unmasked round others,” Bouton says. When you’ve got your coronary heart set on attending a vacation gathering, the most secure transfer is to put on a high-quality masks the entire time.

That’s particularly vital if you should journey by aircraft, bus, or prepare to get to the get together. In case you examined constructive 10 or fewer days in the past and haven’t obtained your pair of damaging check outcomes, the CDC says to not use public transportation except you may keep masked the complete time. When deciding whether or not to journey, Bouton recommends considering not simply of your plans, however of everybody else who shall be touring alongside you. “Would you need your grandmother sitting subsequent to [a person testing positive] on an airplane?” Bouton asks.

If it’s been longer than 5 days and also you’re testing damaging

Below CDC steering, you want a pair of damaging antigen check outcomes, obtained 48 hours aside, to take away your masks round others earlier than day 10. However is it okay to unmask earlier than then when you check damaging as soon as?

It “relies on the corporate you retain,” Chin-Hong says. In case you’re planning to spend the vacations with individuals at excessive danger of extreme illness, it’s most likely sensible to both look ahead to a second damaging check or preserve your masks on by means of day 10.

However “when you’re going to hang around with simply faculty pals and also you’re damaging on day seven, I’d really feel wonderful being regular with them, with out carrying a masks,” Chin-Hong says. (It’s nonetheless a good suggestion to tell everybody you intend to see forward of time and gauge their danger tolerance earlier than you take away your masks.)

In case you’re testing damaging however have lingering signs, it’s clever to be further cautious round susceptible individuals, Chin-Hong provides. “In case you simply have a lingering cough, that’s most likely not sufficient for me to not see grandma,” he says. “I’d put on a masks once I’m in shut proximity, however I wouldn’t go loopy.”

In case you skilled Paxlovid rebound

The antiviral Paxlovid can drastically scale back high-risk people’ possibilities of dying or changing into hospitalized in the event that they catch COVID-19. However some individuals who take the drug expertise what’s referred to as “Paxlovid rebound“: they check damaging, then check constructive once more shortly thereafter. It’s potential to be contagious throughout your rebound part, Bouton says—so if it occurs to you, you need to be “fascinated about extending your isolation interval.”

If it’s been greater than 10 days and also you’re nonetheless testing constructive

It’s pretty unusual that somebody who isn’t immunocompromised would check constructive on an at-home check for longer than 10 days, nevertheless it does occur. (This situation is extra widespread with PCR assessments, which might detect even tiny fragments of the virus.)

“I normally inform individuals, ‘Don’t even hassle to check after day 10,’” Chin-Hong says. Except you’re immunocompromised, you’re seemingly not contagious at this level, even when your assessments are coming again constructive, Bouton agrees.

Write to Jamie Ducharme at jamie.ducharme@time.com.