Why COVID Tests Aren’t Permission Slips to Party Like Normal

You could even “harbor the virus and become sick within hours” of receiving a negative test result, says Shruti Gohil, MD, MPH, an associate medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention, infectious diseases at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. This means if you’re planning to party and violate recommendations to mask and socially distance, there is still a chance you could be infecting people and people could be infecting you.