Should I still isolate myself after a positive test? Is it ok to do my own shopping (with a mask) or should I call someone? Do I still wait for a negative test or simply to be free of symptoms? Since people around me don’t really talk about Covid anymore and my country doesn’t have any guidelines in place, I’d be interested in your takes. I don’t wanna be a d*ck to others but would also rather not overshoot and lock myself up at home for two weeks like in the early days. (I hope this doesn’t count as asking for medical advice.)
Edit: Thanks y’all. Guess I just needed to hear that even though everyone has been talking of “after Covid”, the situation hasn’t fundamentally changed despite our lives having normalized. I’ll be cancelling plans and staying home.
Should I still isolate myself after a positive test?
Yes. You can still infect others and others can still have long covid reactions or complications.
Is it ok to do my own shopping (with a mask) or should I call someone?
No, because that is not isolation. The vast majority of supermarkets these days do parking lot pick up or even home delivery
Do I still wait for a negative test or simply to be free of symptoms? According to the CDC, you can end isolation after a negative test. I would strongly encourage after TWO negative tests because the home testers are far from perfect. The last time I had covid I tested after my symptoms were “mostly gone” and once I had a negative morning test I then did an evening test to confirm.
But, above all: Even if you refuse to acknowledge that covid is serious, you can go a long way by treating it like the flu. If you are sick, don’t go out in public. Don’t cough on people or sneeze on people. And if you are at all concerned you are sick, wear a mask indoors to avoid spreading it to others.
Sorry I don’t think it’s true that the CDC recommends isolating until you have a negative test.
You might still have antigens and therefore test positive for many weeks after no longer being infectious.
There’s a page at the CDC that says if you suspect you have covid then isolate, test after a few days, then if you test negative you can end isolation. If you test positive then you need to isolate for 5 days or something.
If you test positive you don’t need to wait for a negative result.
Culture starts at the top. Set a good example. Send people home when they are sick. If you don’t enforce your culture people will make up their own.
If you get sick with ANY infectious disease you should stay home and isolate. End of.
One of the silver linings of covid is that this has become the norm. I remember how much I used to be shamed for staying home with minor infections, now if anything the opposite is the case.
I had COVID a couple months ago. I was told to strictly self-isolate for two weeks after my first day of symptoms. That meant not leaving my house, even if masked. I was also told to strictly mask for two weeks following that self-isolation period.
I would definitely isolate, it’s still dangerous. My friends mom died about 2 weeks ago from Covid. It’s not super difficult, you can order your shopping in and Amazon brings everything else.
If I think I’m sick, regardless of what I’m sick with, I try to isolate and mask as much as possible. Nobody wants to get sick from me. For the flu and Covid, I go and get tests to allow me to take the antiviral medications. If I have Covid, I mask for a couple of weeks just to prevent spreading it.
People forget that some can not get vaccinated even if they want to, like myself. But I also do my best to avoid people in general so… But do what you can to avoid the public as much as possible when you are sick, regardless of COVID or just a cold.
And those of us who are high risk are likely to be hospitalized even if we are vaccinated. Please don’t send me to the hospital.
Still the same disease it always was
Stay home as much as possible. If you really have no choice (i.e. living alone and groceries can’t be delivered), wear (properly!) an N-95 or similarly rated mask and gloves (if possible). If you can’t wear gloves, bring hand sanitizer with you and sanitize your hands regularly. Avoid touching your face and sanitize your hands in between touching grocery items. You can still be contagious immediately after first testing negative, so make sure to apply the same precautions until you’re sure you are in the clear.
Not meaning to nitpick, but I don’t think the gloves add anything here. You’re not shedding virus out of your pores, so the problem with hands is entirely from touching the eyes, mouth, and nose.
If you wear gloves and that reminds you not to touch your face, I guess that helps. Otherwise, you would need to sanitize or change your gloves regularly, and it may as well just be your hands in that situation.
You’re right, I was thinking about avoiding infection on the gloves part, not the other way around (prevent spreading). But yeah, as long as OP avoids touching his face or getting bodily fluids on his hands, sanitizing often even without gloves should help.
Why would it be any different than before? Some of the answers here range from depressing to terrifying.
I know people whose health and lives are being threatened by Covid, directly and indirectly, as we speak. Infectious disease continues to be infectious. Do what we all learned to do.
Seriously.
Even if a lot of people are vaxed up, the vaccination doesn’t stop the actual spread, so it’s still best to stay at home. Hopefully your job is understanding, they should be, and let you stay home for like a week or two, or work from home.
Lots of comments already telling you to stay home so I don’t think I need to. What I will say is if you don’t want to contribute to the growing number of variants, you’ll stay home. Variants largely arise from mutations in the virus during replication. Humans are virus-replication machines. If you’re infected you could be carrying a new variant right now and the only way to stop it is to let it die inside you. Your body’s immune system will already be in full swing and be in the best position to deal with it as opposed to an uninfected person.
Don’t contribute to the endemicity of COVID.
I would stay isolated until you turn up negative on a test (assuming the current tests pick up on the new strain). Realistically that takes 3 weeks.
It never went away. It’s always been here. You should still be behaving the same way you were behaving 2 years ago.
Get paxlovid from a doctor. It reduces the chance of long COVID.
And have them clear you of any serious risks.
Then isolate for 5 days, or whatever the doctor tells you.
You may still have symptoms after that. Wearing a mask isn’t a terrible idea if so. No one around you wants to see you coughing after they know you just had COVID.
It is my very personal take on this and by no means a recommendation, but here is how I do it:
If I feel seriously sick, that means: more than a common cold, I limit my social interactions to the bare necessary minimum. I will still do my own groceries (if possible outside rush hours) but sanitise my hands thoroughly, wear a fitting ffp2-mask and generally make a conscious effort to take hygiene much more seriously
By now, anybody vulnerable has had the chance to get sufficiently vaccinated so that I don’t feel it is justified to lock myself up.
Many many vulnerable people can’t get vaccinated and even those who can aren’t immune. I know someone who died recently and had every vaccination she was offered.
No excuse to put people at risk on purpose
I‘m not saying I go out and about coughing in peoples faces. I try to be sensible and stick to high hygiene standards as mentioned.
So if somebody is vulnerable or feels anxious about getting infected they should also take proper precautions. And by everything I’ve learned through the pandemic, the risk of transmission should be very minimal.
Those hygiene standards do not stop transmission, just look at all the medical staff that died despite taking all the precautions.
If someone is vulnerable then the only ‘proper precaution’ is that they stay home 24/7. Why should they do that just because people like you won’t stay home for a week now and again? It’s selfish.
Because there are so many people completely free of symptoms that still transmit the virus.
I stick to the official regulations of my administration and they do not state mandatory isolation any more.
Did you just say “other people do it by accident so it’s ok for me to do it on purpose”??
No, I said I stick to the official recommendations but do not exceed them, because I do not believe it is reasonably justified.
You used two sentences, that is the second one. The first is exactly what I said
Do you not have morals? You feel no guilt at potentially killing someone due to your negligence?
I’ve had 6 covid vaccinations and I’m still not protected. It’s not a case of “having the chance to get sufficiently vaccinated” if the vaccines don’t work on your immunosuppressed body, or if you can’t have the vaccine at all.
It’s unbelievably selfish to go out when you know you have covid. How hard is it to stay home for 5 days or so when you test positive ffs?! The fact that you don’t think staying home for a few days is “justified” when you literally risk killing someone vulnerable by not isolating is frankly shameful.
At some point we need to make a decision though, Covid is in the ecosystem now, and it’s not going away, most people will have little to no symptoms worse than a cold due to natural immunity or being vaccinated. While in an ideal world people should isolate when they have something infectious, it’s not always feasible.
Is it not on the immunocompromised to protect themselves rather than the rest of society having to change. Surely this has been an issue with other illnesses prior to 2020 and we didn’t always expect people to isolate then when they had a cold, flu, etc.
I am not saying I go out socialising. But having to care for a family often makes it necessary to go out and get stuff. Especially when your symptom free vaccinated kids still go to school.
Anyway do I believe I pose a significantly smaller threat than those individuals that transmit the virus despite having no symptoms at all.
So I understand your concern and I agree that it is sensible to minimise exposure and take precautions but I also believe in commensurability of measures as there will never be 100% protection of infection. And I say that having dealt with two covid infections and months of heavy post-covid symptoms.
