If you’ve traveled for Thanksgiving, experts suggest you take these steps to avoid spreading COVID-19

Public health leaders have pleaded with people to avoid travel and to meet with people outside their homes for the holidays. But if you’ve traveled or got together with others for Thanksgiving, you can take action now to slow the spread of the virus, experts have said.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control officials say it’s safer to stay at home, but on Wednesday released new guidelines for those who must travel, recommending a coronavirus test before and after travel.

The CDC said travelers should consider getting tested for coronavirus one to three days before traveling, and then another test within three to five days after returning home. Travelers should also limit non-essential activities for at least a week after returning home.

This means that if you got together with others for Thanksgiving last week, it might be time to schedule a coronavirus test.

The CDC’s new recommendations on post-travel testing share similarities with advice from other U.S. coronavirus experts, including Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

In an interview Sunday on CBS’s Face The Nation, Birx said those who have gathered with friends and family for the Thanksgiving holiday should “assume you are infected” and be careful to stay away from other.

“We know people may have made mistakes during Thanksgiving. If you’re young and you come together you need to be tested, ”Birx said, suggesting waiting five to 10 days after the gathering for a test.

But getting a COVID-19 test when you’re asymptomatic can be a “risky proposition,” said Dr Joseph Chang, chief medical officer of Parkland Health and Hospital System.

If anyone is showing symptoms of coronavirus, they should get tested, Chang said. But he warned of a false sense of security that could come with a negative test result if someone is asymptomatic.

A negative test does not necessarily mean that a person is virus-free. This is because it takes a few days after a person is infected for the virus to be detectable via a COVID-19 test.

Instead, he encouraged people to think about how they got together for the holidays, and to be honest with themselves about who they were in close contact with, if anyone was to come together later. feeling sick or testing positive for coronavirus.

A “close contact” for COVID-19 is considered anyone you interact with for at least 15 minutes, without a mask and within six feet of distance, Chang said.

“It’s a different thing to meet 10 or 15 people sitting outside around a bonfire and enjoying s’mores,” he says. “It’s a completely different situation than 10 or 15 people sitting inside, gathered around a table in the breakfast corner.”

If anyone learns that they have had close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, “that means you need to quarantine yourself, and there is no getting around that” Chang said.

The usual precautions – wearing a mask, washing your hands, avoiding gatherings – should also be taken, experts said.

Amid already high hospitalization levels in North Texas, Chang expressed concern about the potential for cases and hospitalizations to increase further after a vacation trip.

“We have seen many reports of airports as busy as they have ever been [during the pandemic]. And that clearly means people are traveling to come together, ”he said. “So our fingers crossed to say the least … that the next two weeks here don’t make matters worse.”

He is also worried about medical workers in North Texas, who are exhausted and frustrated, he said.

“We cannot overestimate how much our people fight for the community. And we really need the community to do the same for us, ”Chang said. “The only way to fight this is as a community – there is no other way to do it. If we don’t all do it together, we will fail. And then we’re going to see our numbers go up and we’ll keep seeing people dying.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.