CDC Shortens Isolation Window for Positive COVID-19 Result to Five Days

by Sebastian Hughes

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated the amount of time it recommends people isolate themselves after testing positive for COVID-19, shortening it from 10 days to five.

“Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others,” the CDC said in a statement Monday.

The CDC changed the guidance because officials believe the data indicates the majority of COVID-19 transmission takes place early in the course of the illness, “generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after,” the statement said.

The CDC also updated the time it recommends those exposed to COVID-19, but who have not necessarily contracted the virus, isolate themselves. Unvaccinated individuals and those more than six months out from their second shot of an mRNA vaccine, typically Pfizer or Moderna, are advised to quarantine for five days, followed by five more of strict mask use. (RELATED: Trump Pushes Back When Candace Owens Doubts The Vaccine: ‘People Aren’t Dying When They Take’ It)

Vaccinated individuals who have received a booster shot do not need to quarantine after being exposed but should wear a mask around other individuals for 10 days, according to the statement. If symptoms occur, the CDC recommends they quarantine until receiving a negative COVID-19 test result.

Cases have skyrocketed in the wake of the more transmissible Omicron variant, with the CDC acknowledging in the statement that two doses of an mRNA vaccine is about 35% effective in protecting individuals from infection, based on data from South Africa and the U.K. A booster shot raises protection against infection to 75%, the CDC said.

“CDC’s updated recommendations for isolation and quarantine balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in the statement. “These updates ensure people can safely continue their daily lives.”

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Sebastian Hughes is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Isolation” by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

 

 

 


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2 Thoughts to “CDC Shortens Isolation Window for Positive COVID-19 Result to Five Days”

  1. LM

    Healthcare workers – if there are any left- will be returning to work with COVID. The claim is that this is being decided in anticipation of a worsening healthcare worker shortage in a coming surge of “unvaxed” being hospitalized. The shortage is not a surge of patients. It is not a lack of beds. It is because healthcare workers are done with being abused and they are leaving the field in droves.

  2. David Blackwell RN, BSN, CCM

    The testing has been flawed form the get go. There are over 200 Viruses that cause Cold Symptoms. Is your doctor testing you for all 200? No? Why not? Think you may have been misdiagnosed. Hire and attorney. Sue for malpractice. It is the ONLY way to stop all this madness.

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