COVID-19

We are currently out of the 2024-2025 COVID vaccine and will not have more until the new version is released this fall. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Follow the latest from CDC here.

CDC recommends that all people use core prevention strategies. These are important steps you can take to protect yourself and others:

When you may have a respiratory virus:

You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:

• • Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
  • You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).

When you go back to your normal activities, take added precaution over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.

• • Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.
  • If you develop a fever or you start to feel worse after you have gone back to normal activities, stay home and away from others again until, for at least 24 hours, both are true: your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Then take added precaution for the next 5 days.

If you never had symptoms but tested positive for a respiratory virus‎:

You may be contagious. For the next 5 days: take added precaution, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.

Additional prevention strategies you can choose to further protect yourself and others include:

• Masks – Wearing a mask can help lower the risk of respiratory virus transmission. When worn by a person with an infection, masks reduce the spread of the virus to others. Masks can also protect wearers from breathing in infectious particles from people around them. 
• Physical distancing – Putting physical distance between yourself and others can help lower the risk of spreading a respiratory virus. There is no single number that defines a “safe” distance, since spread of viruses can depend on many factors.
• Tests – Testing for respiratory viruses 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 a virus to others. 

Every year, respiratory viruses such as influenza (flu), COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cause hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths during the fall and winter virus season.

Groups of people at a higher risk for respiratory illnesses:

Older adults whose immune systems tend to not work as well and are more likely to have underlying health conditions.

Young children have immune systems that are still developing and small airways.

People with weakened immune systems can have lower defenses against infections and their bodies may have a harder time building lasting protection from immunization or prior infection.

People with disabilities are more likely to have underlying medical conditions, live in congregate settings, or experience factors and conditions stemming from social determinants of health that increase their risk for poor outcomes from respiratory infections.

Pregnant and recently pregnant people because pregnancy can cause changes in the immune system, heart, and lungs that make people more likely to get very sick from respiratory viruses.