Is It OK to Be Around People When You Have COVID?

Dealing with COVID in 2024 

“If you really want to not put others at any kind of risk, you’re going to have to sequester yourself for a period of time,” says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease expert, spokesperson for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. 

According to the latest CDC guidelines, that isolation period should be until your symptoms are mild and improving and you’ve been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicine. Testing is now optional. After that, it’s recommended that people continue to take certain precautions — like wearing a mask and keeping a safe distance from others — for at least five days. 

These days, however, it’s less common for people with COVID to adhere to the rules than during the early pandemic years, Schaffner notes, “because the infections are largely mild and people are, if you will, accustomed to COVID.”

That’s not to say COVID is no longer a threat. Cases are surging in most areas of the country; emergency room visits are rising and hospitalization rates remain elevated, especially among adults 65 and older, the CDC says. 

“We’re in the middle of this summer bump that we’re experiencing, which is quite noteworthy, even more than I anticipated,” Schaffner says. 

How should older adults protect themselves from COVID? 

A few years ago, we expected everyone to test themselves for COVID before a big event and stay home if they were positive, says Rebecca Wurtz, M.D., an infectious disease physician and professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Now, that’s not the case. So “we have to assume that anybody at an event potentially has COVID and is potentially infectious, whether they know it or not.” 

With this in mind, you can do several things to lower your risk of getting COVID at a big event. “The first thing I would say, of course, is get vaccinated,” Schaffner says. In February, the CDC recommended that adults 65 and older get a second dose of the vaccine that was introduced last September — and it’s not too late to take advantage of this recommendation. 

Vaccines updated for 2024-2025 should be available in September, if not sooner, Schaffner says. And everyone 6 months and older should get the vaccine when it comes out, the CDC has said. 

“Then the second thing I would say is get out your mask,” Schaffner says. If you have COVID, a mask helps to keep your germs from reaching others. If you’re COVID-free — and want to keep it that way — a mask can keep you from breathing in germs, the CDC says. Snug-fitting masks like N95s and KN95s provide the best protection. 

Finally, practice some social distancing. If you’re at an event or family celebration, sub in air kisses for hugs, Schaffner says. “Because if you’re an older person with a chronic medical illness or two, clearly, should you become infected, you’re more likely to get serious” symptoms. 

He adds, “A lot of recommendations have to do with your own personal behavior. For example, I’ve been saying that right now, since there’s a lot of spread [of the virus] and there is an increase in hospitalizations, it’s a good time to stream a movie rather than going to the movies.”

And don’t just adopt these behaviors at an event. If you know you have something big and important coming up, mask up and practice other precautions in the weeks leading up to it. “This is the future that we all have to be careful about our own exposures leading up to an important event, and then be careful at events if we have a higher level of risk,” Wurtz says.