COVID-19 Testing Guidelines

Recent COVID-19 testing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that if you’ve been in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 and you are not experiencing symptoms, you don’t need to be tested. Based on current data and epidemiologic information from all 159 counties, the Georgia Department of Public Health’s testing guidance will not change, and the Department will continue to encourage contacts of COVID-19 positive individuals to be tested at any point during their self-quarantine if they develop symptoms, or on day 10 of quarantine for those who remain asymptomatic.  It is also important that people remain in quarantine for the full 14 days even if they test negative at some point during the quarantine period. A negative test does not shorten quarantine but helps determine who else may have been exposed to the virus.  Testing asymptomatic people during their quarantine period helps identify those who are infected with the virus, their need to be in isolation, and the need to notify and quarantine their close contacts.