Quarantine means to stay home for 14 days after your last contact with someone who has COVID-19. Watch for symptoms like fever, cough, shortness of breath, or new loss of taste or smell, and stay away from others as much as possible.

You should stay in quarantine (other than to get tested) if you were exposed (within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more) to a person who tested positive for COVID-19. You should stay in quarantine even if you don’t have symptoms as you may still be able to spread the virus to others.

You should seek urgent medical care if you have trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, inability to wake or stay awake, or bluish or pale-colored lips or face.

You need to quarantine as early as you can, even if you have doubts whether or not you were exposed, because you are more likely to infect other people in the early stages of COVID-19 without knowing it.

There are groups of people who are at higher risk of severe illness and even death from COVID-19, such as people with weakened immune systems, high blood pressure, heart and lung issues, diabetes, or cancer.

This is a precautionary measure so that you will not infect other people, even though there are still no definite studies about how long COVID-19 lasts in a person’s body after they have recovered.

Source: CDC