CDC Guidelines

People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Friday. The change ends a strategy from earlier in the pandemic that experts said has been important to controlling the spread of the infection.

A case of Covid no longer means isolating for five days, according to the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. It’s the latest sign of the virus’s normalization four years after it upended our lives.

You should now follow the same precautions with Covid as you take with the flu, according to new guidelines from the CDC. That means staying home until you’ve gone a day with no fever and improving symptoms. Take other precautions for the next five days, including wearing a mask and limiting close contact with others.

It is no longer necessary to isolate for five days after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a Friday statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new guidance tells people to stay home if they are sick, but when they are feeling better and have been fever-free for 24 hours, they can return to school or work.

The CDC does recommend continuing to wear a mask for five days, while washing hands, maintaining physical distance and focusing on good ventilation.

A new guidance document on mental health in schools from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests schools should "focus on equity" and explore establishing race-based affinity groups as one way to achieve it.

The guidance is titled "Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools: An Action Guide for School and District Leaders" and was released this month to help school administrators and teachers "identify evidence-based strategies, approaches, and practices that can positively influence students’ mental health," according to the CDC.

The fierce backlash to the CDC’s recent decision to shorten the recommended isolation period for people who test positive for Covid-19 was the latest in a series of communications blunders so severe that they have now become a meme.

Communication is an essential part of any public health response. But US health agencies have struggled with it since the very beginning of the pandemic, when government officials initially advised against wearing masks in early 2020 before reversing themselves to recommend nearly universal masking.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [last] Tuesday explained the scientific rationale for shortening its COVID-19 isolation and quarantine recommendations [from 10 days to 5], and clarified that the guidance applies to kids as well as adults. The CDC also maintained that, for people who catch COVID-19, testing is not required to emerge from five days of isolation — despite hints from other federal officials that the agency was reconsidering that.” AP News

The influential American Medical Association (AMA) on Wednesday criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) revision of guidelines for quarantine and claimed it is confusing.

Last week, the CDC reduced its recommended quarantine time from 10 days to 5 days for people who have asymptomatic COVID-19. On Tuesday, the agency reaffirmed its decision and said most transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, occurs early on during the infection.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a telebriefing.

Director Rochelle Walensky presided, along with two career scientists. The substance was notable — updated COVID-19 guidance for K-12 schools.

But even more notable was the fact that the briefing was happening at all.

It was the first such briefing in months, despite the ongoing pandemic crisis.

Two days before Christmas, with the Omicron variant driving a near-vertical rise in new coronavirus cases, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted the White House that she planned to recommend that people infected with the virus isolate for five days instead of 10.