Do we need a COVID-19 test after vaccination? No, you can skip routine testing, with some exceptions. There have been quite a few reports lately about people testing COVID-19 positive even after vaccination, including Prime Minister Imran Khan.
However, based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.
According to US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, you don’t need to be tested or to quarantine if you’re fully vaccinated, even if you’ve been exposed to someone who was sick. However, if you develop COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough and fatigue, you should get tested at priority.
The updated guidance reflects recent studies showing vaccinated people face very little risk of serious disease. Even if you get an infection, you’ll be less likely to spread it to others and any symptoms will likely be milder.
The CDC says vaccinated people can also be excluded from routine workplace screening. The relaxed guidelines don’t apply to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, whose employers might still require testing.
However, some medical experts have termed such instances “breakthrough cases” whereby a fully vaccinated person gets the disease. What we know is that if someone does get sick with COVID-19 after vaccination, in what is called a “breakthrough infection,” symptoms will be milder.
Studies have found that people who tested positive for COVID-19 after getting just their first vaccine dose had lower levels of virus in their bodies than unvaccinated people who tested positive.
The researchers believe the decreased viral load hints that vaccinated people who do contract the virus will be less infectious because they will have much less virus that could be spread to others.
