Good Question: What if I can’t get a test?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC)—Wednesday marked one week since the launch of the "test out" option for travelers coming to New York.

You have two options.

You can get a test before leaving the state you are coming from then test again here in NY to get out of quarantine early. The second choice is to do the full two weeks at home.

A viewer named Carla asked News10NBC’s Brennan Somers: "What happens when you travel to a state and they only do COVID testing on residents of that state?"

What if testing is limited— only for certain residents or those with symptoms– or you can’t book an appointment that fits your timeframe? Somers checked with state officials. If you can’t find a test out of state you’re stuck at home for two weeks when you get back.

Somers was told the purpose for that is partly to help with contact tracing. This will better identify how and where someone gets COVID to build a timeline.

Bottom time— to test out you have to get a negative test, wherever you are, within three days of coming to NY. Then, you have to get the second negative test after four more days of quarantine when you get back.

You also can’t just take two tests here in NY to get around rules if you couldn’t get one in another state.

There are some exceptions for essential workers, border States, people going somewhere for less than 24 hours. Read about that here.

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If you have a question you’d like answered, email GoodQuestion@whec.com.