CDC shortens recommended quarantine period to 7-10 days
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Dec 4, 2020
The health agency said seven days with a negative Covid-19 test and 10 days without a test would work for individuals showing no symptoms after exposure to the virus.
US Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a record for a fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, approaching 100,000, according to a Reuters tally.
"By this time next week, we are going to be talking about 3,000 deaths a day - that's 9/11 every single day", Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN on Wednesday. "I actually believe they're going to be the most hard time in the public health history of this nation". More than 100,200 patients were in U.S. hospitals Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
For people who are closely monitoring their symptoms, who take a test five days after the known exposure - or 48 hours before the end of day seven of the quarantine period - and get a negative result, the quarantine period can end after seven days.
The 14-day quarantine period is too long for some owners to be without employees, but even those with limited staff are concerned about a reduced quarantine time.
New guidance from the CDC says quarantine periods can be shorter than 14 days for some people exposed to Covid-19. U.S. states with the highest number of cases include Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Georgia, in that order, Worldometer shows. "The incubation for this disease is still 14 days".
The KDHE said residents should check with their local health departments regarding the quarantine recommendations specific to their county.
The agency defines "close contact" as having been within six feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more; having provided care at home to someone who is sick with COVID-19; having had direct physical contact with the person; having shared eating or drinking utensils; being affected when someone who has COVID-19 sneezed, coughed, or got respiratory droplets around.
"We can safely reduce the length of quarantine, but accepting there is a small residual risk that a person who is leaving quarantine early could transmit to someone else if they became infectious", Dr Brooks said. "That will be tomorrow, and the next day and the next as cases, hospitalizations and deaths increase", she said.
