Have COVID-19? Here’s How Long You Need to Isolate

Vaccines, treatments remain highly important for older adults

Rachel Nania,

Updated September 02, 2025

AARP

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Published February 16, 2024

/ Updated September 02, 2025

a clock face in the shape of a covid nineteen germ with the clack hands spinning around

Paul Spella (Getty Images, 2)

This summer, an increasing number of people are finding that their sniffles, sore throat and cough aren’t allergies but actually COVID-19.

Cases of COVID infections are increasing in many areas of the U.S., the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows, as are emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Even deaths, which remain low compared with previous pandemic peaks, are creeping up.

Wondering what steps you need to take if you test positive for COVID-19?

In 2024, the CDC published updated guidance to say that people with COVID-19 can return to work, school and other activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and they’ve been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicine. Once normal activities resume, additional prevention steps are recommended for at least five days to help curb the spread of the disease.

These steps — wearing a mask, improving air quality in your home, handwashing and keeping a distance from others — are especially important for older adults and people who spend time around older adults, the CDC says. Seeking treatment for COVID-19 and staying up-to-date on vaccines is also key for older adults and others who are at higher risk for a severe case of COVID-19.

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Feeling lousy but testing negative for COVID? These recommendations are consistent for any respiratory virus infection, including the common cold, the flu and RSV.

Don’t ignore treatment, vaccines

Jodie Guest, a professor and senior vice chair in the department of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, says it’s important not to dismiss the virus and to remember that “COVID is still a very significant burden of long-term illness and death.”

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More than 1.2 million Americans have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and nearly 200 people in the U.S. continue to die each week. The death rate for older Americans still towers over younger populations’.

The CDC calls COVID-19 vaccines a powerful tool for preventing severe illness and death. A study published in July 2025 in JAMA Health Forum estimated that vaccines averted 2.5 million deaths globally between 2020 and 2024, with the greatest benefits seen among older adults.

Earlier this year, health officials recommended that adults age 65 and older get a second dose of the 2024–2025 COVID vaccine at least six months after their first to ramp up the immune system. As new COVID vaccines for the 2025–2026 season begin arriving at pharmacies and doctors’ offices, last year’s vaccine may be harder to find. If you haven’t received that second shot yet and would still like to, contact your local pharmacy or health clinic to ask if they have any doses remaining.

Antiviral treatments — like Paxlovid, Lagevrio and Veklury — are another critical line of defense, and are recommended for older adults and people with underlying health conditions, like heart disease or lung disease.

These medications “work extremely well at mitigating symptoms and shortening the amount of time that people are sick and how sick they feel while they have it,” Guest says.

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Despite their proven effectiveness, however, “at least half of the hospitalizations and deaths in people who are at high risk are in people who never [got treated],” Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the author of the book Tell Me When It’s Over: An Insider’s Guide to Deciphering COVID Myths and Navigating Our Post-Pandemic World, tells AARP.

A study published in 2024 found that only 12.2 percent of 309,755 patients eligible for Paxlovid received a prescription. Another study found that only 9.7 percent of more than 1 million high-risk patients received the treatment.

The key to these antivirals is starting them right away — within the first five days of symptom onset, says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We tend to say, ‘Oh, I’ll see if it gets better tomorrow. I don’t want to bother the doctor with this,’ ” Schaffner says. “Do this as quickly as possible, because if you have either flu or COVID, instituting the treatments early gives you the best benefit. The longer you wait, the less effective the treatments are.”

Another important point, Offit says, is to remember that it’s not just COVID-19 that can cause people to get seriously ill. Flu and RSV send hundreds of thousands of people to the hospital each year, too, and there are vaccines that also help prevent severe illness from these infections.

Offit says the key message is to stay home if you’re sick. “Or if you can’t stay home because your work doesn’t allow you to stay home, then wear a mask,” he says.

Editor’s note: This story, first published Feb. 16, 2024, has been updated to reflect a change in guidelines.

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