ST PAUL, Minn. — Cars lined up outside Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Downtown St. Paul, as signs pointed people inside for COVID-19 testing.
This is what health officials are urging people to do, after traveling or gathering for the Thanksgiving holiday.
“The first thing is to test,” says Dr. Gigi Chawla, the Chief of General Pediatrics at Children’s Minnesota.
With more than 13.6 million cases of COVID-19 nationwide, she says it’s important for people who believe they may have been exposed to COVID-19 while traveling for the holiday to continue isolating while waiting for test results. “I think the thing that people often forget is they feel as if they have a negative test, they are good to go,” says Dr. Chawla. “You want to continue your isolation for the two-week period,” she says.
As millions of people took to the skies for holiday travel, public health experts continue to issue warnings about the potential dangers of spreading COVID-19. According to the CDC, anyone who has been within six feet of someone with COVID-19 for 15 minutes or more should quarantine.
Dr. Chawla says it’s important to wait 3-5 days after exposure. “The timeline of when to get a test is not immediate, but a few days later, but you do want to continue to isolate yourself,” she says.
Dr. Chawla says it’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between winter illnesses – like allergies, colds and the flu. “Could be a headache, you could have a stomach ache or a sore throat, you feel terrible and it can progress, and you can develop cough,” she says. “Those illnesses sometimes in the past have been just a cold, but now with COVID-19, those symptoms could look very serious,” she says.
Dr. Chawla says everyone who has traveled or feels sick, should get tested and consult with their primary care physician.