If You Are Sick

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Page originally published 1/11/2024. Page last updated 2/14/2025.

If you have symptoms, and/or test positive, for a respiratory virus, take steps to protect yourself and others. On this page, recommendations and resources for:

If you have any emergency warning signs (like trouble breathing or chest pain) seek emergency care immediately. See COVID-19, flu, and RSV for a list of emergency signs.

Steps Individuals Can Take

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  • Stay home and away from others (including people you live with who are not sick). 
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  • Check your symptoms and follow your doctor's instructions.
    • Rest, drink fluids, and use over-the-counter medicines for fever as needed.
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  • Go back to normal activities when:
    • You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication) for at least 24 hours, and
    • Symptoms are getting better overall.

When going back to normal activities, take added steps for safety over the next 5 days:

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  • Wear a high-quality mask or respirator when around others, especially people at higher risk.
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  • Open windows to improve air flow, purify indoor air, or gather outdoors for cleaner air.
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  •  Practice good hygiene by covering your coughs and sneezes, washing or sanitizing your hands often, and cleaning high-touch surfaces (such as countertops, handrails, and doorknobs).
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  • Test to help decide what to do next, like get treatment.  
    • If you have COVID-19 or flu, treatment may be an option to make your symptoms less severe and shorten the time you are sick.
    • Medications for COVID-19 and the flu work best when started right after symptoms begin.
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  • Stay up-to-date with recommended immunizations.

If you do not have symptoms but test positive for a respiratory virus:

  • You may be contagious.
  • For the next 5 days, take added precautions (such as masks, cleaner air, physical distance, hygiene, and testing) when around others indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.

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Workplace, Healthcare, School, and Childcare Settings

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers guidance for different settings, including workplace, healthcare, school, and childcare settings.

  • In the Workplace
    • Employers are subject to:
      • Labor Code section 6400 which requires employers to maintain a safe and healthful place of employment and must establish, implement, and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) as required by Title 8, California Code of Regulations, section 3203.  Note that as of February 3, 2025, there will no longer be a specific set of regulatory requirements relating to COVID-19 prevention in the workplace.  Subsection 3205(j), which deals with COVID-19 reporting and recordkeeping, remains in effect until February 3, 2026.
      • In some workplaces, the Cal/OSHA Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD) Standard (PDF).
    • Employers should consult review those regulations for additional applicable requirements. 
    • In certain healthcare situations or settings and other covered facilities, services and operations, surgical masks (or higher filtration masks) are required.
    • Although Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Non-Emergency Regulations are no longer in effect, the page provides other useful resources for preventing/control COVID-19 in the workplace including the ​COVID-19 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulations Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
  • In Healthcare Settings
    • The CDC offers separate, specific COVID-19, flu, and general infection prevention and control guidance for healthcare settings . 
    • Federal civil rights laws may require reasonable modifications or reasonable accommodations in various circumstances. 
    • Healthcare personnel in general acute care hospital​​, acute hospital, and skilled nursing facilities should follow recommendations in AFL 21-08.9. 
      • Healthcare personnel working in settings not covered by AFL 21-08.9​ may also follow this guidance. 
    • Healthcare facilities should follow the guidance for management of exposed or infected patients/residents in the CDC COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations. 
    • Local Health Jurisdictions (LHJs), facilities, or other organizations such as high-risk congregate settings may continue to implement additional requirements that are more protective​​ than this statewide guidance based on local circumstances, including in certain higher-risk settings or during certain situations that may require additional isolation and quarantine requirements (for example, during active outbreaks in high-risk settings).

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Call the Epidemiology Unit at (619) 692-8499, or send an e-mail, for more information.