Stay Home – Stay Safe!
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
How to Self-Quarantine and Self-Isolate
If you have questions about isolation or quarantine, you can call your Local Board of Health or the Department of Public Health’s On-call Epidemiologists at 617-983-6800.
If you are not sick but are:
- a close contact to someone diagnosed with COVID-19, or
- recently returned from any travel outside Massachusetts,
please take these steps to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Self-quarantine: Separate yourself from others in case you get sick
- Stay at home and use a separate bedroom and bathroom if possible.
- Do your best to stay at least 6 feet away from other people in the house.
- Do not leave your house to go to school, work or run errands.
- Do not have any visitors to your house during this time.
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Do not share eating or drinking utensils with anybody.
- Monitor your health every day.
- If you need to seek routine medical care call ahead to your doctor and tell them, you are under COVID-19 quarantine.
- Do not take public transportation, taxis, or ride-shares to get to your appointment.
Monitor your health every day:
- Do health checks every morning and every night or anytime you feel like you might have a fever
- Take your temperature
- Be alert for any symptoms of COVID-19, including fever, cough or shortness of breath.
If you have a medical emergency, call 911. Tell them your symptoms and that you are being monitored for COVID-19.
How to determine your last day of exposure:
Your last day of exposure is:
- The last time you were within 6 ft. of someone confirmed to have COVID-19, or
- The day you arrived home after travel
If you do not show signs of COVID-19 for 14 days after the last time you were exposed, your self-quarantine period is finished.
If you:
- get sick during self-quarantine, or
- are sick and a healthcare provider tests you for COVID-19, or
- are told by a healthcare provider that you have COVID-19,
take these steps to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Self-isolation: Separate yourself from others to keep your germs from spreading
- If you get sick with fever, cough, shortness of breath, or other signs of respiratory illness, call your healthcare provider and tell them if you have been exposed to COVID-19.
- If you need see your healthcare provider, do not take public transportation, taxis, or ride-shares to get to your appointment.
- Stay at home and use a separate bedroom and bathroom if possible.
- Stay at least 6 feet away from other people in the house.
- Do not leave your house to go to school, work or run errands.
- Do not have any visitors to your house during this time.
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Do not share eating or drinking utensils with anybody.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing.
- Clean surfaces that you touch every day with a household disinfectant.
- Make a list of everyone you have been close to (within 6 feet of for at least 15 minutes), since you first got sick. Those people have been exposed to COVID-19 and should be asked to self-quarantine.
If you have a medical emergency, call 911. Tell them your symptoms and that you have, or may have, COVID-19.
How long do you need to isolate?
For most people who have relatively mild illness, you will need to stay in self-isolation for at least 7 days. You can resume public activities once you have:
- gone for three days without a fever (and without taking fever-reducing medications like Tylenol), and
- experienced improvement in your other symptoms (for example, your cough has gotten much better).
More information about how to self-isolate is available on the CDC website