When you are a close contact - archived
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Here you will find information and advice to close contacts and those who are in quarantine.
This information is now archived - current advice can be found here:
Advice for close contacts
If you are defined as a close contact, you are basically healthy, but have been in a situation where you have been in enough close contact with a person with COVID-19 that you may have been infected.
A distinction is made between close contacts who are household members or are equivalently close to the person who is infected, such as a romantic partner or best friend, and other close contacts. Those who receive a positive test result should notify their close contacts.
Advice for household members or equivalently close
- Children of lower secondary school age and under (1st-10th grade) are only recommended to be tested if they have symptoms, even when there is ongoing infection in their household.
- You are recommended to be tested every day for 5 days from the last close contact with the last person infected in the household. If more people in the household become infected, 9 days are counted from when the last person became ill.
- In addition to daily testing, it is recommended that you wear a face mask indoors in public places and that you avoid large gatherings and events for 10 days after close contact. The recommendation for face masks does not apply to children under 12 years of age, school children over 12 years of age when they are at school and those who for medical and other reasons cannot use face masks.
- If you develop symptoms, stay home and get tested.
- The tests can be self-tests, or rapid antigen tests or PCR tests taken by healthcare professionals.
- The test period is counted from the onset of symptoms in the infected person, or from the test date if the person who is infected has no symptoms.
- If you have had COVID-19 disease in the last 3 months, you should only be tested if you develop new symptoms. It is then recommended that you use self-testing.
- No force or medication should be used to perform testing.
- Children under the age of 16 should not be tested if it is disproportionately demanding to test them.
- If you test positive, you must be in isolation - see When you are in isolation You no longer need to take a confirmatory test at a test centre if you have had your third vaccine dose (booster dose), or have had two doses followed by having COVID-19 within the last three months. In order to help the municipality and health authorities monitor the infection situation, it is recommended that people who test positive with self-testing register their results in their municipal contact tracing system. Test results that are registered in the municipality's system are not sent to helsenorge.no, and will thus not be shown in the COVID-19 certificate.
Advice for other close contacts
The same advice applies to the general population.
- You are considered an "other close contact" if you have been in contact with the infected person from two days before they had symptoms or from the time of testing if the infected person has no symptoms. Contact refers to being closer than 2 metres for more than 15 minutes.
- You are recommended to be tested if you have symptoms.
- If you take a self-test that turns out to be positive see When you are in isolation
- The tests can be self-tests, rapid antigen tests or PCR tests taken by healthcare professionals.
- If you have had COVID-19 in the last 3 months or are part of a regular testing programme, you should only test yourself if you have symptoms. It is recommended to use self-tests.
- You no longer need to take a confirmatory test at the test centre if you have taken a third vaccine dose (booster dose), or have had two dose of coronavirus vaccine followed by COVID-19 in the last 3 months. In order to help the municipality and health authorities monitor the infection situation, it is recommended that people who test positive with self-testing register their results in their municipal contact tracing system. Test results that are registered in the municipality's system are not sent to helsenorge.no, and will thus not be shown in the COVID-19 certificate.
- Parents decide whether children should be tested.
- Children under the age of 16 should not be tested if it is disproportionately demanding to test them.
- Testing should not be forced and medication should not be used.
For further advice about children and adolescents, see:
See also: