Sex & COVID

Updated April 23, 2025

En español

The COVID pandemic may not be interrupting day to day life anymore, but people are still testing positive. It is important to stay aware of how to protect yourself and your community. Wearing a mask in public spaces, testing after exposure or if you have symptoms, and receiving your yearly COVID vaccine can all make a huge difference in preventing new COVID infections and severe outcomes. While some people have no or just very minor symptoms and recover in several days, some can experience much more serious health problems which can last a long time (like long-COVID).

New variants of COVID continue to emerge, and no one knows what new, more infectious strains might emerge in the future

Here’s what’s important to remember in order to protect yourself and others:

  1. Get vaccinated and stay up to date yearly. Get a vaccine at vaccines.gov. Vaccines are safe and very effective. Here is the most updated information from the CDC. Vaccines do not always protect you from infection, but they’re very effective in reducing symptoms, hospitalizations, and death as well as reducing the spread of the virus. Most people can still get a COVID vaccine for free. For people with health insurance, most plans will cover COVID vaccine at no cost to you. People who don’t have health insurance or with health plans that do not cover the cost can get a free vaccine from their local health centers or at a state, local, tribal, or territorial health department.
  2. Get tested. Testing is particularly important if you have any symptoms, have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, or before and after you attend an event with a lot of people. Many pharmacies carry tests, and insurance companies may cover the cost. Make sure that you store your test properly, check the expiration date, and use the test correctly to ensure accurate results. Find a testing option near you.
  3. You can reduce your chance of getting sick/spreading COVID by wearing a mask when you’re out in public, especially when indoors with others. While many places no longer require them, they provide extra protection against COVID. The most effective masks are N-95 or KN-95 masks, which you can get for free from your local mask bloc or at many drug stores and online. Cloth masks and loose fitting surgical masks on their own do not provide as much protection. Find out how to update your masks here.
  4. If you test positive for COVID or have symptoms, go into isolation until you can get a PCR test. More recent COVID variants aren’t being detected by home rapid tests, so make sure to contact a health care provider to get a PCR test. Read this guide for more on starting and stopping isolation.
  5. If you test positive for COVID and are more likely to get very sick (especially if you’re immunocompromised, disabled, and/or older), treatments are available that can reduce your chances of hospitalization and death. Treatment must be started within a few days after you first develop symptoms to be effective. Find a location that offers testing and treatment or a pharmacy where you can fill your prescription.
  6. Don’t beat yourself up if you still get COVID. While vaccines, masks and reducing contact with others will significantly reduce risk, they don’t prevent COVID 100% of the time. By using some or all of those strategies, you’re still doing your part to protect yourself and others in your community. 
  7. If you currently have COVID or have symptoms of long-COVID, get help. Check out these support groups for more resources on how to deal with symptoms and other health issues related to COVID. According to the CDC, 1 in 5 people in the U.S. are living with long-COVID or other post COVID health issues.
  8. You can get COVID more than once and each new infection increases your chance of long-COVID. Keep masking, getting yearly vaccines, and following the below guidance to keep yourself safer.
  9. Stay updated on what COVID looks like in your community. Since home testing has gotten more popular, many cases of COVID don’t get reported to public health departments. This makes it harder to track the spread of COVID in a community and to let people know about outbreaks. Health departments are measuring the presence of COVID virus in wastewater (sewers and water systems), since people with COVID can shed the virus in their feces even if they don’t have symptoms. This can serve as an early warning that COVID is spreading in a community. The People’s CDC puts out a weekly report using wastewater data.

New information is coming in frequently, so we suggest going to the CDC’s website for the latest recommendations. We’ve faced a lot of challenges as a community. We can overcome this one as well.

Read the following info about having safer sex during the ongoing COVID pandemic.

  • You can get COVID from a person who has it, and especially by being physically close to that person.
  • The virus most commonly spreads in the air, even if someone doesn’t have symptoms. Most COVID cases are caused this way, which is called asymptomatic transmission. This is why masks and ventilation indoors are effective ways of preventing people from passing on COVID whether you feel well or not.
  • Getting a yearly COVID vaccine and wearing masks in public spaces are the most effective ways to prevent transmission. See this CDC guide for understanding your COVID exposure risk.

Have an honest conversation with your sex partners, housemates, sex work clients, and any other close contacts about any significant exposures they may have had.

  • People can be asymptomatic and still infectious.
  • Tell your partners if you get diagnosed with COVID.
  • Ask your close contacts questions!
    • Have they gotten their yearly vaccine?
    • Have they recently been diagnosed with COVID? People who have recovered from COVID for at least 10 days from the day their symptoms started are likely no longer infectious.
    • Have they been exposed to someone with COVID in the last 10 days?
    • Are they at high risk for complications from COVID?
    • Have they had any symptoms since their vaccine?

The best way to protect yourself from COVID is staying up to date with your COVID vaccines. just like you might do for the flu. Making sure your partner is vaccinated is important too: that gives you both the most protection. To find a vaccine near you, go to vaccines.gov or your state or local health department’s websites. 

Vaccine protection and immunity after COVID infection decrease over time so it’s important to get a yearly vaccine. The vaccine changes each year to better target the new strains of COVID circulating. Here are the current recommendations:

You can still get COVID even if you’ve been vaccinated, but that doesn’t mean vaccines don’t work. Vaccines are very effective at keeping you from getting seriously ill. According to CDC data, unvaccinated people are 4.5 times more likely to get COVID, and 11 times more likely to die from their infection than those who are vaccinated.

Unvaccinated and vaccinated people can both transmit COVID to others. People who have symptoms are more likely to transmit COVID than people who do not. 

If you and your partner are both vaccinated, your risks of infecting each other are lower, but it’s still possible. To reduce your risk, here are some suggestions:

  • Use apps, videos, and texting to keep meeting people – without meeting in person. You can even have an old-fashioned phone call.  Use this time to flirt or get to know someone better and meet in person later, especially when cases are high in your area. 
  • The safest partner is someone you live with. Having close contact — including sex — with only a small circle of people helps prevent spreading COVID-19. The fewer people you’re physically close to, the better. 
  • If you do have sex with others outside your household, have as few partners as possible and pick partners you trust. 
  • If you decide to have sex outside of your circle of contacts or a hookup:
    • Closely monitor yourself for symptoms.
    • Consider testing for COVID on a more frequent basis (or monitor yourself for symptoms more closely after a hookup). Go online or call your health department or medical provider for information on where you can get tested.
    • Take extra precautions if you are a person at higher risk for severe illness or are having sex with someone who is. This can include people over 65 years of age or those with serious medical conditions. Medical conditions include lung disease, moderate to severe asthma, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, liver disease, cancer or a weakened immune system (for example, having unsuppressed HIV or a low CD4 count).
    • Wear a mask and wash your hands to minimize risk to others.
  • Have fewer partners. You and your partner can create an exclusive ‘bubble’ where you agree to only have sex with each other for the time being and stay in communication about your COVID-19 exposure.
  • It’s very hard to determine if everyone has been vaccinated in a group setting, including at sex parties or clubs. Ask your party organizer if they have rules about being vaccinated or tested for COVID, as well as mpox vaccination requirements.
  • If you usually meet your sex partners online or make a living by having sex, consider taking a break from in-person dates during times of high COVID spread. Video dates, sexting, subscription-based fan platforms, “Zoom parties” or chat rooms may be options for you.
  • If you usually meet your sex partners online or make a living by having sex, consider taking a break from in-person dates during high COVID spread. Video dates, sexting, subscription-based fan platforms, “Zoom parties” or chat rooms may be options for you.
  • Have sex only with consenting partners. To learn more about consent, visit on.nyc.gov/consent.
  • Get tested regularly for STIs, and if you’re HIV-negative or don’t know, make sure you get tested for HIV as well. Go to GetTested.CDC.gov for a directory of free test sites near you. In some states, you may be able to get a free test sent to your home by going to TakeMeHome.org.
  • If you feel unwell, or even start to feel unwell, avoid kissing, sex or any close contact with others. You can find a list of symptoms on the CDC’s website.
  • If you have been exposed to someone with COVID, avoid close contact with anyone outside your household and follow guidance about how to prevent exposing others. People exposed to COVID-19 should get tested for the virus using a swab or saliva test.
  • If you or your partner have a medical condition that can lead to severe COVID illness, you may also want to take extra precautions or skip sex.
  1. If you have symptoms, even if you haven’t taken a test.
  2. If you’ve been vaccinated, you need to go into isolation if you test positive.
  3. If you’ve been exposed to COVID,  and are not vaccinated, isolation is no longer required, but be sure to get tested.

Stay home, monitor your health, and follow directions from your state or local health department. Talk with your partners and other close contacts about your plan to end isolation. Going into isolation prevents the spread of COVID that can happen before you know whether or not you have COVID. Prepare for isolation here.

Look online for a free COVID test near you. If you can’t find one, call your primary care doctor or your local health department. There are different kinds of COVID-19 tests:

  • Home testing (antigen tests) which are sold in drug stores and also available for free at your local community testing sites & COVIDtests.gov.
  • PCR testing, which is more accurate but you need to go to a clinic to get one. They’re usually available for free as well.

It’s a good idea to get tested before meeting new people, particularly if you’re in a group; if you have any symptoms; or after you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID. For more information about testing, click here.

Get tested regularly for STIs and HIV as well. Go to gettested.cdc.gov to find out the nearest place to get a test. In some states, you may be able to get a free test sent to your home by going to TakeMeHome.org.

Get a COVID vaccine

Find a COVID testing location

CDC Coronavirus Information