Health officials still encourage 14-day quarantine after negative COVID-19 test

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Health officials are warning everyone who receives a negative COVID-19 test result after contacting someone with the virus to still quarantine for up to 14 days just to be safe.

Stories of false positives and false negatives have raised concerns about the accuracy of COVID-19 testing.

Studies have shown anywhere from a 2 to 29 percent false-negative rate for the most common COVID-19 nose-swab test, the reverse transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

You can get a false negative by taking the COVID-19 test too early or late in the incubation period -- or if the swab isn't pushed far enough up your nose.

"There's many reasons why you can receive a negative test result, and what that does is kind of engender a false sense of security," Dr. Haley Zachary with El Paso County Public Health explained during an interview with KRDO Friday.

If you come within six feet of someone with COVID-19 for more than fifteen minutes, you have to be quarantined for 14 days -- by law here in Colorado, even if your test comes back negative.

"You cannot test out of that time period," Dr. Zachary noted.

What are the rules for everyone else?

If you have symptoms of COVID-19 without knowingly being exposed to the virus, Dr. Zachary said it's best to skip the testing center and head straight to your doctor.

"A provider can provide more context as to what those illnesses may be, while also offering to test you, not only for COVID-19, but for other respiratory diseases as well," she explained.

Right now, you don't have to get tested to enter Colorado, but you do for a number of other states. If your travel test turns up negative, Dr. Zachary said it's still best to quarantine post-vacation.

"Travel itself is a high risk exposure, in that you are with a lot of people who you don't know for a long period of time," she told KRDO.