According to Dr. Elizabeth Ransom, the executive vice president and chief physician executive at Baptist Health, if you think you've been exposed to COVID-19, wait almost a week from the exposure before getting tested.
"Self-quarantine because if that's the case, you don't want to expose anyone else and then get tested about six to seven days after the exposure," she said.
Ransom said the reason to wait to get tested is that the virus doesn't form that quickly.
"A test would be negative even if a person were infected the same day as exposure," Ransom said. "It's not a good idea to get tested the same day because what happens is even if one is infected, the virus doesn't have time to replicate that quickly."
As far as how often you should get tested, Ransom said it depends on each person, your line of work, who you're around and, of course, how you feel.
"If several days later or maybe a week later you start to notice symptoms, then absolutely get tested again because there may have been another exposure that you were unaware of, so absolutely in those situations if there are symptoms, definitely get tested," she said.
If you need to get tested, there are testing sites around Jacksonville. Here is a link to a list of testing sites.