The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today updated their pandemic guidelines, offering slightly looser recommendations that are unlikely to change much how Americans are coping with the pandemic today.
Under the updated guidelines, people who are not up to date on their vaccinations, i.e. unvaccinated people or people who have not received the recommended number of boosters, will no longer need to be quarantined if they know they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. If an out-of-date person is exposed, the CDC now recommends wearing a mask for 10 days after exposure and getting tested for COVID-19 on day 5. Currently, about 68 percent of the U.S. population is unaware of their COVID-19 vaccination.
This update of the guidelines essentially puts an end to all COVID-19-related quarantine recommendations, as the CDC had previously said those aware of their vaccines should not be quarantined, but should wear a mask for only 10 days. and testing.
While it’s unclear how many people were still in quarantine, the end of the COVID-19 quarantine will lead to one major change, probably the most drastic of all the updates announced today: the end of the CDC’s recommendation for the “test- to-stay” policy at school. This was a policy where not up-to-date students could use negative test results to stay in school after an exposure. This was an alternative to requiring such students to go into quarantine. But in the absence of any quarantine recommendation, the test-to-stay strategy is now redundant.
Otherwise, the updated guidelines suggest testing to screen people without symptoms or known exposures, such as requiring healthy people to test negative for events. “Screen testing may not be cost-effective in general community settings, especially if the prevalence of COVID-19 is low,” according to guidelines published today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC says screening can be most helpful in high-risk settings, such as long-term care facilities, correctional facilities, or homeless shelters.
The guidance also emphasizes physical distancing as a primary mitigation effort. Instead, the CDC now says people should consider moving away from “just one part of how to protect yourself and others.” People should consider factors such as COVID-19 Community Levels and ventilation when deciding whether physical distancing is necessary, the agency said.
to live with it
The CDC’s looser guidance is the latest shift from public health messages to individuals’ choices. At the start of the pandemic, public health officials stressed the need for collective efforts to reduce transmission in communities, protect the most vulnerable and reduce the risk of creating new variants. But current coverage emphasizes personal decision-making rather than community-wide effects.
“Individuals can use information about the current level of COVID-19 impact on their communities to decide what prevention behaviors to use and when (at all times or at specific times), based on their own risk of serious illness and that of household members, their risk tolerance and environment-specific factors,” the new guideline states.
The CDC says it focuses on “sustainable measures.” the agency also says its guidelines reflect that the vast majority of the population has some immunity to COVID-19 — through vaccination or previous infection — which lowers the risk of serious illness and death.
“We are stronger as a nation today, with more tools — such as vaccinations, boosters and treatments — to protect ourselves and our communities from severe illness from COVID-19,” Greta Massetti, lead author of the CDC’s guidance, said in a statement. declaration. “We also better understand how to protect people from exposure to the virus, such as wearing high-quality masks, testing and improved ventilation. This guideline recognizes that the pandemic is not over yet, but also helps us make a point where COVID-19 no longer seriously disrupts our daily lives.”
Currently, the CDC reports that 40 percent of U.S. counties have high levels of COVID-19 Community Levels and should therefore require masking in indoor public settings. Nearly 94 percent of counties, meanwhile, have high COVID-19 transmission levels, according to the latest CDC data.
For those advancing COVID-19, the CDC still recommends isolation — the guidelines for this have not changed. People who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for five or more days and wear a mask for 10 days. The CDC still doesn’t suggest that people should test negative before leaving their isolation. But if they want to use testing to end isolation or masking early, the CDC notes people should use it two consecutive negative tests 48 hours apart.
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration separately advised that home COVID-19 testing could yield false negatives. For those who have no symptoms but have been exposed to COVID-19, the FDA is now advising people to three tests, every 48 hours in a row, to confirm that they are not infected.
