Do I need to urge tested for COVID-19 if I’m vaccinated?
No, you'll skip routine testing, with some exceptions.
The latest guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says you don’t get to be tested or quarantine if you’re fully vaccinated, albeit you’ve been exposed to someone who was sick. An exception is that if you develop COVID-19 symptoms like fever, cough, and fatigue.
The updated guidance reflects recent studies showing vaccinated people face little or no risk of great disease. albeit you get an infection, you’ll be less likely to spread it to others and any symptoms will likely be milder.
As a result, the CDC says vaccinated people also can be excluded from routine workplace screening, though many companies aren’t tracking employees’ vaccination status. Screening remains recommended for people working or living in homeless shelters or prisons, thanks to the upper risk of outbreaks.
The relaxed guidelines also don’t apply to doctors, nurses, and other health care workers, whose employers might still require testing. Guidance may vary by country.
U.S. citizens coming back from abroad also still need to present a negative COVID-19 test before boarding their flights home, no matter their vaccination status. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should still isolate for 10 days, the CDC says.
As for vaccinations increase, many experts expect the CDC to further relax testing guidelines, even for vaccinated people with symptoms. Many common colds and viruses can cause symptoms resembling COVID-19, experts say, which could lead to a wave of unnecessary testing within the fall.
“As we race to open copy, an entire sort of infections that we don’t routinely test for is getting to cause those self-same symptoms,” said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz of the University of Minnesota. “You should wash your hands and stay home from work, but there’s no got to run bent be tested.”