The CDC has reduced the number of days a person who has potentially been exposed to COVID-19 needs to quarantine. | georgia.gov
The CDC has reduced the number of days a person who has potentially been exposed to COVID-19 needs to quarantine. | georgia.gov
Folks who have been exposed to COVID-19 no longer have to quarantine as long as previously recommended, following a revision of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines earlier this month.
About a week after Thanksgiving, the CDC changed its guidelines to reduce the amount of time people exposed to the virus need to quarantine.
Before the revisions, the CDC recommended a 14-day quarantine for people exposed to the virus. Now the CDC recommends a seven- or 10-day quarantine, based on test results and whether the person exposed develops symptoms.
Henry Walke, CDC
| cdc.gov/media
The CDC maintains that a two-week quarantine is still the safest option, but 14 days can impose significant demands on people.
"Reducing the length of quarantine may make it easier for people to take this critical public health action by reducing the economic hardship associated with a longer period, especially if they cannot work during that time," Henry Walke, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, said during a CDC telebriefing on Dec. 2. “In addition, a shorter quarantine period can lessen stress on the public health system and communities, especially when new infections are rapidly rising.”
Those exposed to the virus should continue to watch for symptoms -- such as loss of taste or smell, fever and cough -- for a full two weeks.
The new guidelines also recommend that intimate partners, family members and others in close contact with a quarantining person should also be subject to quarantine.
The CDC is suggesting that people stay home during this holiday season, as it did ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, and that people who travel anyway should be tested before and after travel and should quarantine for seven days after returning.
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