{"id":95,"date":"2020-10-22T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T22:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=95"},"modified":"2020-11-08T23:02:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T23:02:06","slug":"if-i-was-exposed-when-should-i-get-tested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=95","title":{"rendered":"I was exposed; when should I get tested?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Question:<\/strong> If I think I may have been exposed to COVID, how long should I wait to get tested?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer:<\/strong> We\u2019ve talked a bit about this in previous posts (see Q&A of 9\/18<\/a> #Antigen Tests, Q&A of 7\/12 <\/a>#Timeline, and Q&A of 7\/3<\/a> #False Negative). Based on what I\u2019ve read,the best time to get tested is as soon as you feel symptoms OR 3\u20135 days after exposure (if you aren\u2019t experiencing symptoms). Here\u2019s a quick synthesis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timeline: The median time of symptom onset is 5 days after exposure (range: 2\u201314 days). People can transmit the virus before showing symptoms, as early as 2 days after exposure. Yesterday CDC updated its \u201cclose contact\u201d definition<\/a>, which is now \u201canyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes or more [over a 24-hour period].\u201d If you have reason to believe you were exposed (e.g. in close contact), please self-quarantine, and if possible, get tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing: Three things we can be confident about and one thing we\u2019re less confident about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) If you test the day of exposure, you\u2019re sure to get a negative result, even if the virus has begun circulating in your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) If you test the day of symptom onset and you are infected with SARS-CoV-2, you\u2019re very likely to get a positive result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) If you test several days after symptom onset, it\u2019s better to use a PCR test rather than an antigen test; when using a PCR test you\u2019re also very likely to get a positive result if you are indeed infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) If you are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic, the best time to test post-exposure is less clear cut. Based on what I\u2019ve read, 3\u20135 days after exposure is likely the best time to get tested, but a negative result isn\u2019t a guarantee that you\u2019re truly negative, so please continue to take precautions and consider getting yourself retested later in the 14-day incubation window.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: If I think I may have been exposed to COVID, how long should I wait to get tested? Answer: We\u2019ve talked a bit about this in previous posts (see Q&A of 9\/18 #Antigen Tests, Q&A of 7\/12 #Timeline, and Q&A of 7\/3 #False Negative). Based on what I\u2019ve read,the best time to get tested is as soon as you feel symptoms OR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testing","tag-timing","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covidqanda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/October-22.jpg?fit=225%2C224&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}