The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated guidance on quarantine for those exposed to COVID-19.
COVID-19 Testing Site at WDW Maingate Complex
Up to this point of the global health crisis, the CDC has recommended a two-week quarantine for those who have been exposed to COVID-19. Now, that recommendation is changing to shorten the length of quarantine for some people.
According to CNN, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, Dr. Henry Walke, continues to recommend quarantining for 14 days but notes that there are two alternative quarantine periods. Quarantine can end after 10 days without a COVID-19 test if the person reported no symptoms, or after seven days with a negative test result if the person has reported no symptoms.Â
©Kemptville District Hospital
Even if they end quarantine early, those who have been exposed should still monitor symptoms for 14 days as symptoms can appear anytime within two weeks after exposure. This change has been made to help make it easier for people to quarantine and lessen stress on the public health system as new infections are rising quickly.
Maingate Testing
Walke notes, “We are sharing these options with public health agencies across the country so that they can determine how long quarantine period should last in their jurisdictions based on local conditions and needs. Everyone should follow this specific guidance from their local public health authorities about how long they should quarantine.”
COVID-19 Testing Site at WDW Maingate Complex
We’ll be keeping you up to date on these major changes and how they may influence travel in the future. Many states still require quarantine or a negative test when traveling so check with your local government before any nonessential travel.
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Interesting. Here in NZ everyone arriving has a test on day 3 and day 12 in managed isolation and a significant number of positives come from the day 12 test.
I think it’s important to realize this was done not because of new information about how the disease spreads but because we in the US are apparently too dang wimpy to be able to handle a 14 day quarantine.
If you’re asymptomatic, which roughly 40%-45% of the cases are, according to the CDC you still have up to a 10% chance of being able to spread the disease after 10 days. The 7 day quarantine guideline, which involves a PCR test, is in direct conflict with other CDC guidelines that make it clear you cannot test out of quarantine simply because of the rate of false negatives with the test.
How did we become a society so incapable of doing the right thing?
“Even if they end quarantine early, those who have been exposed should still monitor symptoms for 14 days”
SO if you show no symptoms after 10 days you should still quarantine for another 14 days? Yeah no thanks.
That’s interesting to know Rachel, as I had just talked to a doctor friend who told me that symptoms appear up to 9 days after infection – but not after that. Better to err on the side of caution!