CDC shortens COVID-19 quarantine guidelines

As the COVID-19 surge continues, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shortening the guidelines for anyone who had an exposure to the virus.

There are two new options instead of automatically quarantining for 14 days.

First, if you take a test seven days after being exposed — and it’s negative — you can stop quarantining.

But Allegheny Health internal medicine doctor Brian Lamb, DO, said the key is to not get tested too early.

“You can’t get out of quarantine early by getting a test too soon. What you’re doing then is putting more people at risk because you have a false sense of security when you could actually have the disease and spreading it,” Lamb said.

The second option: If you haven’t experienced any symptoms by day 10, and didn’t get a test, your quarantine can end.

“That doesn’t mean that you had a fever on day three, and you feel fine by day 10. If you start to develop symptoms, you’re back into a contaminated person,” Lamb said.

It’s a similar approach to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s recent COVID-19 policy change, at a time where staffing shortages are a concern.

They are now bringing staff back after 10 days without symptoms.

Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology Medical Director Graham Snyder, MD, said the change came after researching their own data.

“We have learned that the vast majority of our healthcare workers, if they remain asymptomatic through 10 days, they are not likely to become symptomatic afterward. So we have already started to bring healthcare workers back 11 days after their exposure if they have no symptoms through 10 days,” Graham said.

But, no matter when your quarantine ends, doctors urge you to wear your mask no matter what.

“But we all have to work together right now. This is the time for us not to give up and not to have COVID fatigue and not throw your hands up to surrender,” Graham said.

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