COVID-19 - How to protect yourself and others

You will receive text messages from the Cantonal Doctor's Office to guide you through the steps to follow.

• You must immediately go into isolation.
• You will receive an SMS providing access to an online questionnaire to list the people you have been in close contact with during the past 48 hours before the onset of your symptoms.
  • If the questionnaire you submit is not complete, you will be contacted by the Cantonal Doctor's Office.
• Once the questionnaire is duly filled in, you will receive a personalised isolation decision from the Cantonal Doctor's Office.

See also: 

• FOPH instructions on isolation
• Important information regarding the coronavirus test procedure
• List of COVID-19 information phone lines

You will receive text messages from the Cantonal Doctor's Office to guide you through the steps to follow.

• You must quarantine yourself immediately.
• You will receive an SMS providing access to an online questionnaire that you shall have to fill in.
• After your questionnaire has been submitted, you will receive an personalised quarantine decision from the cantonal doctor's office.
• You will receive a new text message at the end of your quarantine period.

Consult the FOPH instructions on quarantine

NB: Since 13^th January 2022, the quarantine period in Geneva is of 5 days. This adaptation follows the new recommendations of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). The first quarantine day is the day of the last contact with the person tested positive.

Only persons with the highest risk of infection, i.e. those who live in the same household as the person who tested positive or who have been in intimate contact with that person, are quarantined. These persons are exempt from quarantine if they received their last dose of vaccine (primary vaccination or booster) less than 4 months ago, or if they have been cured for less than 4 months.

Other close contacts of a positive person are no longer quarantined. The positive person is encouraged to inform his/her contacts of his/her positivity. Contacts are strongly advised to cancel or postpone appointments for one week, both in their private lives and at work, to be tested if they have any doubts (free test), to wear a mask in all contact with others for 7 days after the last contact with the positive person, and to avoid public areas.

As soon as you have symptoms and have made an appointment for a screening test:

• You must place yourself in isolation while waiting to undergo a test and pursue this isolation while waiting for the test results.
• You should start preparing a list of the people you have been in close contact with during the past 48 hours.
• Important information regarding the coronavirus test procedure

If your situation allows it, it is recommended that you inform your relatives and other people with whom you have been in close contact that you have symptoms and that you are waiting to be tested.

Consult the FOPH instructions on isolation

• A negative test result

You took the test because you had symptoms and you are not under quarantine. If your test is negative, you must stay home and may leave your home when you have been without symptoms for at least one day (24 hours).  If you are away from work for 24 hours, you do not need a medical certificate.  If you are away from work for a longer period of time, contact your doctor for a medical certificate.

If there are no symptoms on day 5, the quarantine ends the next day. No test is required.
 

• A positive test result

See the above listed paragraph: You have been tested positive

• Vaccination
  Persons vaccinated within the last 4 months (basic vaccination completed, or booster dose received) are exempt from quarantine following close contact with a confirmed case of SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) from the day the vaccination was fully completed.
   
• Cured COVID-19
  Persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 4 months are exempt from quarantine following close contact with a confirmed case of SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19).

Health professionals

In view of the epidemiological situation and in order to preserve the continuity of the health system, all health professionals are provisionally exempted from quarantine. Article 1 of the Regulation on Health Professions determines which professions are concerned.