
In some cases, a person may need to isolate for 20 days or longer. People who are immunocompromised should talk with their doctor before ending isolation. If you have a moderately or severely compromised immune system Day 0 is the first day of symptoms, and the 10-day count begins on the following day.Īnyone who has been hospitalized to treat COVID-19 should talk with their doctor before ending isolation. People who have had a moderate or severe COVID-19 infection should isolate through at least day 10. According to the CDC, a severe case is when a person is hospitalized. Moderate symptoms of COVID-19 include shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. Anyone who is unable to wear a mask, such as young children, should isolate through day 10.Īfter isolation, people with mild symptoms can consider ending masking sooner if they have 2 negative COVID-19 tests, taken 48 hours apart.
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/HFZOBIRS3LDHQ2JWEFFX3ND5RM.jpg)

When ending isolation, it is important to wear a high-quality mask at home and in public through day 10. If a person is only experiencing a loss of taste and smell as a lingering symptom, they do not need to continue isolating. Their other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving.They have not had a fever for 24 hours and have not used fever-reducing medications.Day 0 is the first day you have symptoms, and the following day is day 1.Īfter day 5, someone who has had a mild COVID-19 infection can be around other people again if both of the below statements are true: Mild symptomsĪ person with mild symptoms must isolate until at least day 5. If a person develops symptoms, the clock resets to day 0 and the isolation period restarts. If a person tests negative on 2 rapid antigen tests taken 48 hours apart, they may consider removing their mask sooner. Day 0 is the day of the positive test, and day 1 is the following day.Īfter isolation ends, wear a high-quality mask indoors at home and in public through day 10. Someone with no symptoms can end their isolation period after day 5. No symptoms (asymptomatic)Ī person may test positive for COVID-19 but never develop any symptoms. When counting isolation days, remember that Day 0 is the day that a person first experiences symptoms or has a positive test result. When a person develops symptoms or tests positive for COVID-19, isolating from others helps prevent the virus from spreading.Īccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the minimum isolation period can vary depending on the factors listed below. Overall, the length of time that the study participants shed potentially contagious virus particles was in the range of 5–16 days. Of these participants, 22 eventually developed symptoms, while nine never did. Researchers looked at 31 people hospitalized for other reasons who tested positive for COVID-19 but did not have any symptoms. If a person does not have symptoms but later develops them, they are pre-symptomatic before they experience the symptoms.Ī 2020 study found that both asymptomatic people and pre-symptomatic people can and do shed the virus and spread COVID-19. If a person has no symptoms, they are asymptomatic. In people without symptoms, determining contagiousness is difficult, as many people without symptoms may never know that they have COVID-19. Therefore, they may be most contagious shortly before and shortly after symptoms appear.įor this reason, people should ensure that they isolate immediately if they think that they may have come into contact with the virus or if they have developed symptoms.

One 2021 review suggests that a person with COVID-19 is most contagious in the first week of illness. It’s also worth noting that infectiousness itself, both in the sense of how much someone will transmit the virus to others and how long they can do so, is highly variable. It is currently not clear whether the result would be the same for people with mild or asymptomatic disease. The 2021 study included immunocompromised people who may shed the virus for longer. However, the study only included people who were receiving treatment in a hospital for moderate to severe COVID-19. These results suggest that shedding may occur for longer than 2 weeks in some people with COVID-19. At 15.2 days, the odds of continuing to shed the virus were less than 5%. The median length of time that participants continued to shed the virus was 8 days after first developing symptoms. One 2021 study included 129 people hospitalized with COVID-19. However, symptoms typically appear within 4–5 days of exposure.ĭifferent variants of the virus appear to have different incubation periods, with Omicron having a shorter incubation period than the earlier Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants. Share on Pinterest Justin Paget/Getty ImagesĮxperts believe that the time from exposure to symptom onset, also known as the incubation period, is 2–14 days.
