Covid best practices after one person in home travels?

December 27, 2021 3:38 PM

Boostered partner flew to another city to visit with boostered family members, gets back today. I may be at higher risk for illness (asthma, overweight). What is best practice here for testing and distancing for covid safety?

The details:

-My partner flew to a large Southern metro area Thursday and is coming back to our home city (West Coast) today.
-She stayed in a house mask-off with 6 other (boostered) family members who flew in from other ciites. Her other family members went to one large indoor event, masked, while she was visiting.
-No one feels sick.
-We have 3 rapid tests at home.
-We have good air purifiers.

I'm wondering what we should do to minimize risk of transmission:
-Should we sleep in separate rooms for a few nights, or is that overkill? How long should we, if so?
-When should we consider her "all clear" if she tests negative? When should she test given that it might be hard for us to get more tests than we already have?

I might be being paranoid, but I do have boostered friends who are pretty sick right now, so I have no real idea. Would love a reality check.

posted by c'mon sea legs to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Are you vaxxed/ boostered?
posted by theora55 at 3:48 PM on December 27, 2021

Response by poster: Oops. Yes, I am vaxxed and boostered.
posted by c'mon sea legs at 4:17 PM on December 27, 2021

What I am doing as a vaxxed, boosted person after flying to visit vaxxed, boosted family in an area with higher cases than home:
1) Took at test immediately after arriving home, which is 5 days after my flight out, in case I was infected on my flight to see them and just incubating while there
2) Testing on day 3 at home
3) if that's negative, testing on day 5 at home.

I also tested the day I left (so I know I wasn't infectious in the hour before I got on my outbound plane) and while I was there before the multiple-household family social gathering, as did all the family, but obviously you can't go back in time.

I am not masking in the house at this point. My partner is returning from his own travels soon and we will have him test on a similar schedule, but at this point don't really plan to sleep separately--we are in really close quarters and if he is positive I'll just move forward with the two of us quarantining together. YMMV here but as the person at higher risk in the couple I'm comfortable with that, given my booster.

If you're having trouble finding tests, GoPuff has had good stock for same-day delivery for my friends in multiple West Coast cities. If you have a few now, and just need more for future, Roman sent some to me with 2 day shipping.
posted by assenav at 4:54 PM on December 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

Just to add...the California guidelines, at least, are that anyone who has traveled into the state should test 3-5 days after arrival, regardless of vaccination status.
posted by assenav at 4:57 PM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Old guidance would be PCR test on day 5 and isolate until day 7 and as long as there are still no symptoms on day 8, there’s a low chance you will develop COVID (and extremely low following the above and no symptoms by day 10). Many health départements and the CDC recommend testing 3-5 days after last exposure.

Delta and omicron tend to develop symptoms faster. Personally (with no particular citation available) I would have the traveler isolate in another bedroom if possible and on day 3 get a PCR test and continue isolating until you get the test results back.

Omicron is very contagious though. I don’t have data on it, but I wonder what the numbers look like for household transmission and if it’s realistic to avoid exposure in a household with the windows closed. It doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort if it’s inevitable.
posted by raccoon409 at 5:00 PM on December 27, 2021

Note and update:
Isolation and quarantine guidance for the general population were updated by the CDC just hours ago (I wrote my previous comment before seeing this).

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1227-isolation-quarantine-guidance.html

Based on that guidance I’d have the traveler strictly mask (N95) in the home (and isolate if possible) with rapid tests on days 4,5, and 6.
posted by raccoon409 at 5:26 PM on December 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

I got home yesterday and did a home test immediately. My best friend will be in the house tomorrow so I'm doing another home test in the morning before she gets here (and then staying in another room from her while she's here) and have a PCR test scheduled for the afternoon. I want the PCR results before I spend any meaningful time with any person.
posted by magnetsphere at 5:27 PM on December 27, 2021

Having just done basically this, the only precaution we are taking is me testing negative three days after getting back before I go back into work.
posted by cakelite at 5:35 PM on December 27, 2021

A physician friend gave me this advice: take one rapid test, check the results; if it's negative, take a second test 24 hours later. Self-isolating and PCR tests are the best option, for sure, but not possible or realistic for all situations. The aforementioned home testing rountine is what I am doing once I return from my current trip (and I'm trying to keep my distance, always mask, have 3x vax, etc.) before seeing older family members.
posted by smorgasbord at 9:36 PM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

my personal preference is to add on indoors masking for extended engagements for about a week. I'm used to sleeping while masking in flights, so this isn't a big ask though. but also in the kitchen or anywhere more humid.
posted by cendawanita at 10:07 PM on December 27, 2021