3 Key Steps to Take While Waiting for Your COVID-19 Test Result

To help stop the spread of COVID-19, take these 3 key steps NOW while waiting for your test results: 

1 Stay home and monitor your health. 

Stay home and monitor your health to help protect your friends, family, and others from possibly 

getting COVID-19 from you. 

Stay home and away from others:

• If possible, stay away from others,

especially people who are at

higher risk for getting very sick

from COVID-19, such as older

adults and people with other

medical conditions.

• If you have been in contact with someone with

COVID-19, stay home and away from others for 14

days after your last contact with that person.

• If you have a fever, cough or other symptoms of

COVID-19, stay home and away from others (except

to get medical care).

Monitor your health:

• Watch for fever (100.4°F),

cough, shortness of breath, or

other symptoms of COVID-19.

Remember, symptoms may

appear 2-14 days after exposure

to COVID-19 and can include:

• Fever or chills

• Cough

• Shortness of breath or

difficulty breathing

• Tiredness

• Muscle or body aches

• Headache

• New loss of taste or

smell

• Sore throat

• Congestion or runny

nose

• Nausea or vomiting

• Diarrhea

2 Think about the people you have recently been around.

If you are diagnosed with COVID-19, a public health worker may call you to check on your health, discuss who you 

have been around, and ask where you spent time while you may have been able to spread COVID-19 to others. While 

you wait for your COVID-19 test result, think about everyone you have been around recently. This will be important 

information to give health workers if your test is positive. 

Complete the information on the back of this page to help you remember everyone you have been around. 

3 Answer the phone call from the health department. 

If a public health worker calls you, answer the call to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in 

your community. 

• Discussions with health department staff are confidential. This means that your personal and

medical information will be kept private and only shared with those who may need to know,

like your health care provider.

• Your name will not be shared with those you came in contact with. The health department will only notify people you

were in close contact with (within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes) that they might have been exposed to COVID-19.

HEALTH

DEPARTMENT

ANSWER

 THE CALL

CS 318271-A 07/21/2020

cdc.gov/coronavirus
Think About The People You Have Recently Been Around

If you test positive and are diagnosed with COVID-19, someone from the health department may call to check-in on your health, 

discuss who you have been around, and ask where you spent time while you may have been able to spread COVID-19 to others. 

This form can help you think about people you have recently been around so you will be ready if a public health worker calls you.

Things to think about. Have you:

• Gone to work or school?

• Gotten together with others (eaten out at a restaurant, 

gone out for drinks, exercised with others or gone 

to a gym, had friends or family over to your house, 

volunteered, gone to a party, pool, or park)?

• Gone to a store in person (e.g., grocery store, mall)?

• Gone to in-person appointments (e.g., salon, barber, 

doctor’s or dentist’s office)?

• Ridden in a car with others (e.g., Uber or Lyft) or took 

public transportation? 

• Been inside a church, synagogue, mosque or other places 

of worship?

Who lives with you? 

Who have you been around (within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes) in the last 10 days? (You may have more 

people to list than the space provided. If so, write on the front of this sheet or a separate piece of paper.)

Name Phone Number Date you last saw them Where you last saw them

What have you done in the last 10 days with other people?

Activity Location Date