According to the Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), if you are fully vaccinated – that is, at least two weeks out from your second dose of the coronavirus vaccine – you should feel comfortable resuming some common, pre-pandemic activities like unmasked indoor gatherings with others who are also fully vaccinated.
The more relaxed guidelines reflect recent studies that show fully vaccinated people face little risk of contracting Covid-19. As more and more people get vaccinated, fewer and fewer are getting tested. What has caused the downward testing trend is complicated. Growth in informed awareness, a decline in infection and hospitalization rates, and a sense of pandemic fatigue is among the prevailing factors.
Still, experts claim now is NOT the time to pump the brakes on the preventative measures that have slowed the spread of COVID-19 and have finally brought about a reasonable sense of normalcy.
Among these measures is COVID testing.
Even if you are fully vaccinated, getting tested remains extremely important, especially if you are feeling ill.
Displaying Covid-19 Symptoms
In mid-May, the New York Yankees baseball team drew attention, as nine fully vaccinated members of their club tested positive for COVID-19. These individuals (mostly asymptomatic) are what the CDC refers to as “breakthrough” infections.
The latest guidance from the CDC says any fully vaccinated person experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 — cough, fever, chills, congestion, shortness of breath, fatigue, headache, loss of sense of smell, nausea, to name a few — should self-quarantine, inform their healthcare provider, and get tested for COVID-19. Progressive Diagnostics offers the most comprehensive and convenient testing solutions at a number of service centers in Fairfield County.
Although the risk that fully vaccinated people could become infected is low, experts say getting tested is always recommended, especially when considering the potential of more lethal strains of the coronavirus surfacing here in the U.S.
Testing will continue to be a vital all-important tool, even as the disease evolves from wide uncontrolled community spread to small isolated outbreaks.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, commented, “Testing is still an indicator of where the disease is and where it is going,” said Benjamin. “We’re just now beginning to get our hands around this outbreak that we’ve been chasing since the beginning, and if we let our guard down now, it will escape us.”
For fully vaccinated individuals who suspect that they’ve been exposed to someone with the disease and are not exhibiting symptoms, infection is statistically rare. However, monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms for at least 14 days and proceeding with caution is advised, according to current CDC guidelines.
Put simply, should symptoms develop, get tested for COVID.
And, then there are the less common “mysterious” symptoms seemingly unrelated to COVID-19 to look out for, as Dr. Lucian Davis, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health notes.
“If you get sick, you definitely should get tested because, while those symptoms might not be related to COVID, if they were you’d want to know and you’d definitely want to prevent transmission to other people and take care of yourself.”
Time to Get Tested
No vaccine is perfect and regardless if you have received the vaccine or not, people who exhibit the familiar symptoms consistent with novel coronavirus infection should continue to get tested.
If you are feeling sick or if you have been exposed to someone sick, consult your physician and get tested today, regardless of your vaccination status.
COVID-19 Testing & Progressive Diagnostics
Progressive Diagnostics is at the forefront of helping to make our community safer. As such, we offer COVID-19 PCR and antibody testing that is quick, easy, accurate, and convenient at a number of Patient Service Centers located throughout Fairfield County.
Click here to book your appointment with Progressive Diagnostics today.
We offer same-day PCR and antibody results if tested before 12PM, and next-day results if tested after 12PM.*
*Turnaround times are average and are not a guarantee.
