CDC Shortens COVID Quarantine, Adds Vacation Travel Tips



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In the face of a spate of post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released new options for shorter quarantine periods and urged Americans not to travel for them. holidays ahead, although they have also unveiled new tools to do so. safely, with and without testing.

Shortened quarantine period

In a media briefing today, CDC officials first detailed the new quarantine guidelines, which they say have evolved as experts learn more research and modeling data.

Henry Walke, MD, CDC COVID-19 incident manager, said that while the 14-day quarantine period after exposure to COVID-19 is still ideal, the CDC now recommends two acceptable periods: 10 days without testing if the quarantined person has no symptoms and 7 days with a negative test if the individual has no symptoms. In either case, the CDC urges people to continue monitoring their symptoms for 14 days after exposure.

John Brooks, MD, CDC’s chief medical officer for COVID-19 response, said the new quarantine recommendations are based on extensive modeling inside and outside the CDC and that the residual risk for the period 10-day period ranges from 1% to 12%, with the residual risk for the 7-day period ranging from 5% to 10%.

He said the CDC had heard anecdotal reports from public health officials that many people were not meeting the ideal 14-day quarantine period, in part due to the need to return to work. Brooks added that the agency hopes the shorter quarantine options will lead to better compliance and may even prompt people to share their contact names with contact tracers.

Travel safely, with and without testing

The new guide specifically for travelers comes 3 weeks before Christmas and says: “Postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19.”

The CDC recommends that if people decide to travel, they be tested 1-3 days before travel, with repeat testing 3-5 days after travel. For returning travelers, the CDC recommends avoiding non-essential activities for 7 days after travel for people who have been tested, extending the period to 10 days for those who have not been tested.

Walke said testing around travel doesn’t eliminate all risk, but, when combined with other measures, can make the process safer.

Cindy Friedman, MD, head of CDC’s travel health arm, said the agency realizes travel decisions for the holidays are difficult and people need time to prepare and discuss issues with their family and friends. She said the new guidelines provide tools for making the tough choices and give people several weeks to consider their safest options.

Trends in cases, deaths

The United States yesterday reported 180,083 new cases of COVID-19, plus 2,597 more deaths, on the country’s second deadliest day of the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. During today’s CDC briefing, Walke said health officials will likely see the post-Thanksgiving rise within 7-10 days of the holidays.

The number of Americans currently hospitalized has reached a record 98,691, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The latest weekly report to governors of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which is not publicly available but the reports are compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, warned that the threat of COVID-19 to Americans is at a historical level. The report warned that the country is in a dangerous place due to the high number of cases and limited hospital capacity.

He said 47 states are in the red zone for new cases, 1 fewer than the week before. States are in the red zone if new cases per week exceed 100 per 100,000 population. However, 3 more states are in the task force’s red zone for deaths, bringing the total to 39.

Vaccine delivery details

AT Report Today, Operation Warp Speed ​​(OWS) officials took stock of vaccine shipments and dose projections in the coming months.

Moncef Slaoui, PhD, the group’s chief adviser, said officials were confident they could distribute enough to vaccinate 20 million (40 million doses) in December, then 30 million in January (60 million doses) and 50 million in February (100 million doses).

General Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of OWS, reported that the expedition had already started, with 64 jurisdictions (50 states, 8 territories and 6 mega-cities) and 5 federal agencies receiving their initial allocations. On November 20, they shipped 6.4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and on November 27, they shipped 12.5 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine. He added that his goal is to distribute the vaccine within 24 hours of an emergency use authorization (EUA).

In addition, the US Department of Transportation said yesterday it had prepared for the mass shipments and completed all regulatory steps, Reuters reported. And the Trump administration invited major vaccine manufacturers, distributors and government officials to a vaccine summit on Dec. 8, Stat reported, which an industry official said is pressuring federal officials to quash the vaccine. ‘they quickly approve bids from Pfizer and Moderna EUA.

In other American titles:

  • Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has received an EUA from the FDA for a new test that measures antibodies to the coronavirus. He said the test could help identify recovering patients who could donate serum and plasma for COVID-19 treatment.
  • An adviser to President-elect Joe Biden on the response to COVID-19 has said the nation will not control the pandemic if it does not address the disproportionate toll the pandemic places on minorities, for whom hospitalization and death rates mortality are two to four times higher than whites, the Associated Press reported today.
  • Non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that cut income from pandemic-related job losses could hit the Social Security trust fund hard, The hill reported. The CBO estimates that, without change, the trust fund will exhaust its reserve of $ 2.8 trillion over the next decade.
  • The total for the U.S. pandemic has now risen to 13,805,573 cases, with 272,052 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.



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