How to Protect Yourself and Others

Core Prevention Strategies

CDC recommends that all people use core prevention strategies to protect themselves and others from COVID-19:

• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Although vaccinated people sometimes get infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines significantly lowers the risk of getting very sick, being hospitalized, or dying from COVID-19.
• Practice good hygiene (practices that improve cleanliness)
• Take steps for cleaner air

When you are sick:

• Use precautions to prevent spread, including staying home and away from others (including people you live with who are not sick) if you have respiratory symptoms.
  • Learn when you can go back to your normal activities.
• Seek health care promptly for testing and/or treatment if you have risk factors for severe illness. Treatment may help lower your risk of severe illness, but it needs to be started within a few days of when your symptoms begin.

Additional Prevention Strategies

In addition, there are other prevention strategies that you can choose to further protect yourself and others.

• Wearing a mask and putting distance between yourself and others can help lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
• Testing for COVID-19 can help you decide what to do next, like getting treatment to reduce your risk of severe illness and taking steps to lower your chances of spreading COVID-19 to others.

What to watch out for

Using these prevention strategies can be especially helpful when:

• Respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19, flu, and RSV, are causing a lot of illness in your community
• You or those around you have risk factors for severe illness
• You or those around you were recently exposed to a respiratory virus, are sick, or are recovering