COVID - 19 Close Contact

Field users and players  of their respective sports organization should follow close contact guidelines listed below.

Close contacts of confirmed cases are the people most likely to become infected themselves. To facilitate identification of infections, molecular testing is recommended for all close contacts regardless of symptom status. 

• Close contacts, regardless of symptoms associated with COVID-19, should be tested as soon as possible after they are notified of their exposure to COVID-19.

 • Testing should be done by PCR or other molecular test from a nasopharyngeal, nasal, or oral swab or a sputum sample. Serologic (antibody) testing is not appropriate for this use. 

• Symptom-based testing should occur at any time during the contact’s 14-day quarantine period, even if the person previously had a negative test result within that same period. 

• There should be a low threshold for determining if someone is symptomatic and new onset of any of the following symptoms—fever, cough, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, chills, shaking chills, headache, myalgia, sore throat, or loss of taste or smell—in a close contact should trigger testing. 

• The contact is required to quarantine for the full 14 days, even following a negative test result.

• Close contacts may present a letter or a text from the MA COVID Team or a letter from a local Board of Health indicating the need for testing. 

• Please refer to the website to find a convenient testing site https://www.mass.gov/infodetails/covid-19-testing#testing-sites