We are back with Cone health
Doctor Cynthia Snyder.
She's answering your questions
about COVID-19. Alright,
so this question is about someone who
goes to get their COVID test right,
but they're waiting for days.
It's now been five days since
they got tested.
Their symptoms are gone.
Do they still need to isolate?
So you should if someone is getting tested
for symptoms and during that waiting
period you're doing the right thing.
You're staying home,
you're laying low out of you know
you're not trying to infect anybody,
and you're wearing a mask when you're
in public. If you had to go out.
I, if you're you're presuming you're
positive your isolation should be.
Like it's one day, it's like your
onset of your symptoms plus five days.
So on that 6th day,
if you are feeling better like
and presumably if you're you
know your symptoms are all gone,
you can go out in public but and resume
back to work with the new CDC guidelines.
But the key caveat is you have to
ensure that you're wearing your mask.
Throughout your work day and
and doing parents and such
OK. And if you didn't have
any symptoms whatsoever,
ever, but you tested positive.
Or you test it and you haven't gotten
it back yet and it's five days.
The same applies you should wear a
mask for those remaining five days.
Alright, well, let's talk about that.
What mask should I wear?
You know over these last couple years, we've
gained so much information about masking,
and you know initially it was fabric masks.
We needed two layers and then we
could also use surgical masks.
And then there was also
either the KN 90 fives or K.
K 94 hours you know all these
different higher filtrations,
with Omicron being so infectious,
we're finding out that
fabric masks are not enough.
We feel that the fabric masks you know
they they come in all different fabrics.
They probably have filled.
You can if you can breathe through it.
You can probably feel your air,
and that just means it's not.
It's not efficient enough.
So it's very important to come.
Get either like us.
These types of the paper masks,
and then you making sure it's
tightly around your your nose as
well as the bottom your chin so
that you don't feel like extra pair.
You know,
going through it and and if you
have access to the KN 95 ones,
those two are actually probably provide
the best filtration for the public.
OK,
but let's talk about those fabric masks
'cause I know I have a whole bunch of them.
A lot of them are kind of two ply.
They have like an opening in the middle,
so I have heard that you can put
like a coffee filter in there and
that will help with the barrier,
correct? So if you doubled up the barrier,
that would give you.
Better efficacy to that mask,
and again you can a regular paper mask like
this is considered about 6065% effective,
but if you make it tighter you know
be it twisting the straps around
your ears like that you can increase
the efficacy up to like 7075%,
so it's just making sure that you your
mask is covering your nose and and
below your chin and not like the person,
right? We're back to the whole
isolation thing. When does my
isolation period start when I test
positive or when I feel sick?
So if somebody has no symptoms and
is getting tested positive testing
for work purposes or you're close,
contact the date that used.
Test positive is considered day zero and
your next day is considered day one.
If and then you stay under
isolation for five days.
If somebody is getting tested for symptoms,
even mild ones such as congestion
or feel like I have allergies
the first day of your symptoms
again is considered day zero.
And then you stay isolated for five days,
so positive or the day that you
start feeling the symptoms.
That's right, OK,
we're going to take a quick break.
We're back with more of your
questions coming up next.