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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering shortening the current coronavirus quarantine schedule from 14 days to just seven to ten, according to an exclusive report by the Wall Street Journal. The agency hopes the change will prompt more people to comply with the guidelines.
In a statement provided to Fox News, a spokesperson for the agency said no such changes have been finalized.
“The CDC is still reviewing its guidelines and recommendations in light of new understandings of the virus that causes COVID-19 and will announce such changes where appropriate,” the spokesperson said.
Henry Walke, the agency’s incident manager for the COVID-19 response, reportedly told the Wall Street Journal that the new guidelines would also include testing to ensure a person is negative for the coronavirus before terminating in quarantine. He said that once the test is negative, the likelihood of a person developing the infection “is quite low.”
“We believe that the work that we have done, and some of the studies that we have and the modeling data that we have, show that we can, with testing, shorten quarantines,” he told the outlet, in the exclusive interview.
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It was not clear what type of analysis would be accepted or when it should be done to quantify the end of the quarantine period.
Walke told the outlet that while there is a risk that some infections could be missed, the hope is that people “get better at quarantine if it lasts, say, between seven and ten days.”
Currently, the CDC defines quarantine as keeping someone who may have been exposed to the virus away from others, which is different from isolation. The latter is defined as keeping a person infected with the virus away from others, even at home.
The agency advises that those who have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19, excluding those who contracted the virus in the past three months, enter a 14-day quarantine period after your last contact with the sick person. If possible, people who are in quarantine are advised to stay away from others, especially those at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19.
“For all of the following scenarios, even if your COVID-19 test is negative or you feel healthy, you should stay home (quarantined) as symptoms may appear two to 14 days after ‘exposure to the virus’, currently indicate current guidelines.
The scenarios mentioned in the guidelines include close contact with someone with COVID-19 but not planning to see it, living with someone infected with COVID-19 but trying to avoid further close contact, close contact additional with an infected person while in quarantine and close contact with a COVID-19 person in the household.
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The potential change would come amid promising news on the coronavirus vaccine front. Appearing on Fox News Tuesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said a vaccine would be available “probably by the end of the second week of December.”
In an appearance on “The Daily Briefing,” Redfield said the vaccine will likely be distributed in a “hierarchical” fashion, first given to nursing home residents, then to healthcare workers and others at high levels. risk of serious illness.
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