Important Information and Updates Regarding Coronavirus

Masks

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a Scientific Brief about the effectiveness of community use of face masks to control spread of COVID-19.
• NH Division of Public Health Services (DPHS) continues to recommend everybody (except for people with contraindications per CDC guidance) wear face masks when in any public location.

Travel and Quarantine Guidance

• DPHS continues to recommend against any non-essential personal or business travel, and people should avoid gathering with others who are not part of a person’s immediate household, even during the holidays.
• People traveling outside the six New England States (NH, ME, VT, MA, CT, RI) still need to self-quarantine for 14 days from their last day of travel outside New England (unchanged).
• Travelers now have the option to shorten their travel-related quarantine if all the following apply: the person gets a molecular-based test (an antigen is not acceptable) on day 7 (or later) of their quarantine, the person tests negative, and they remain asymptomatic. This 7-day “test out” of travel quarantine option applies ONLY to travel-related quarantine and NOT quarantine due to other types of exposure.

Contact Tracing

• “Close contact” is defined as a person being within 6 feet of someone with COVID-19 for a cumulative time of 10 minutes or longer during the person’s infectious period; this exposure can occur over multiple separate contacts or even days.
• Close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19:

1. 1. Must quarantine (stay home) for 14 days from the last day of their exposure to the person infectious with COVID-19.
   2. Get tested for COVID-19 (ideally 5-7 days after exposure) even if they do not have symptoms of COVID-19. Testing for COVID-19 during quarantine helps identify infection early when someone may be infected but still asymptomatic and can help stop further spread of the virus, but a negative test does NOT allow a person to end quarantine early.