Maria Stavreva/Getty Images
Maria Stavreva/Getty Images
The good news is, the numbers of COVID-19 cases are plummeting across the country. But there’s still a stunning amount of virus spreading in many places, with more than 100,000 reported cases a day. If you have a current infection, you might be wondering, just how long am I infectious? And when is it safe for me to step out and socialize again without risking getting others sick?
The answer depends on whom you ask.
According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you can exit isolation five days after a positive test or the start of symptoms, so long as your symptoms are improving and you keep wearing a mask around others an additional five days.
However, this guidance comes with caveats: It’s largely based on data from prior variants, and it was shaped by practical considerations – namely, how to make sure workplaces had enough staff to keep functioning at a time when omicron infections were racing across the country.
Meanwhile, emerging science suggests that, with the omicron variant, as many as half of the people infected will still be potentially infectious on day five – and some may be for a few days beyond.
“What we know based on the data so far is we can’t reliably use five days as a way to exit isolation,” says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
So how can you know if you are ready to rejoin the world — without potentially infecting others? Here are some science-based criteria that can help you…