Important update: Healthcare facilities

CDC has updated select ways to operate healthcare systems effectively in response to COVID-19 vaccination. Learn more

Find the latest information:
Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People
COVID-19 Homepage

UPDATE

Given new evidence on the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, CDC has updated the guidance for fully vaccinated people. CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place.

UPDATE

The White House announced that vaccines will be required for international travelers coming into the United States, with an effective date of November 8, 2021. For purposes of entry into the United States, vaccines accepted will include FDA approved or authorized and WHO Emergency Use Listing vaccines. More information is available here.

How to Protect Yourself and Others

Updated Apr. 4, 2024

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CDC’s Respiratory Virus Guidance provides strategies you can use to help protect yourself and others from health risks caused by COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses. These actions can help you lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission (spreading or catching COVID-19) and lower the risk of severe illness if you get sick.

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.

Key Times for Prevention

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

Check Your Community

Find out if respiratory viruses are causing a lot of illness in your community. Data updated weekly.

Check the latest data

Get the Latest on COVID-19, Flu, and RSV

Learn more about all three of these respiratory viruses, who is most at risk, and how they are affecting your state right now. You can use some of the same strategies to protect yourself from all three viruses.

Get the Latest on COVID-19, Flu, and RSV

Additional Resources

Archived Content

Search for and find historical COVID-19 pages and files. Please note the content on these pages and files is no longer being updated and may be out of date.

Visit archive.cdc.gov for a historical snapshot of the COVID-19 website, capturing the end of the Federal Public Health Emergency on June 28, 2023.
Visit the dynamic COVID-19 collection to search the COVID-19 website as far back as July 30, 2021.