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- The recommended 14-day quarantine period for Americans exposed to COVID-19 may soon be shortened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- Officials are finalizing plans for a quarantine period that could be short of seven to 10 days, Dr Henry Walke, CDC’s incident manager for the COVID-19 response, told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
- Walke said people should take a COVID-19 test before getting out of quarantine.
- People were more likely to follow the rules if the quarantine was shorter, he said. “Hopefully people would be in a better position to meet quarantine if it was, say, seven to ten days.”
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to shorten the recommended time for Americans to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19.
Currently, the CDC recommends that people self-quarantine for 14 days after coming into contact with someone with coronavirus.
But CDC officials are finalizing plans for a new quarantine period that could be as short as seven days, Dr Henry Walke, the agency’s incident manager for the COVID-19 response, said on Tuesday. at the Wall Street Journal.
“Hopefully people would be in a better position to stick to the quarantine if it lasted, say, between seven and ten days,” he said.
People should also take a COVID-19 test to make sure they don’t have the virus before getting out of quarantine, he added.
Walke said agency officials were discussing the exact length of the quarantine and the type of test a person would undergo to get out of self-quarantine.
“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 said.
If someone tests negative for COVID-19 “then their likelihood of continuing and developing an infection after that is quite low,” he added.
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In October, CDC director Dr Robert Redfield said in a briefing that the agency was considering reducing the length of the quarantine to one week, according to NBC News. “Obviously, we don’t want people to be unnecessarily quarantined for 14 days,” Redfield said.
In addition to a 14-day quarantine period, the CDC is also currently advising Americans to wear a mask and socially distance themselves from other people to suppress the spread of the virus.
Health officials believe the coronavirus has a 14-day incubation period. Infected people may not have any symptoms during this time, but can still pass the virus on to others.
The CDC’s announcement came as coronavirus cases in the United States are on the rise. More than 12.6 million people have been infected with the virus and nearly 230.00 have died, according to the New York Times COVID-19 tracker.
The World Health Organization (WHO) advises a 14-day quarantine for anyone who may have been in contact with someone with COVID-19. However, officials are reviewing the data, a WHO spokesperson told the Journal.
Read more: The drugmakers behind 3 coronavirus vaccines say they work. Here’s everything we know about the vaccine race and when you might be able to get the vaccine.
Across the Atlantic, European countries are reducing quarantine time for those who have been in contact with a case of COVID-19.
In September, France reduced the quarantine from 14 to seven days, while the Germans were told they were to self-isolate for 10 days instead of 14 on November 8 – although individual states decide to self-isolate. they want to take advice.
Belgium shortened its quarantine period to seven days on October 1, but then increased it to 10 days on October 19 after an increase in cases.
The UK still enforces 14-day self-isolation, but the country plans to reduce the quarantine period for incoming travelers from 14 to five days, if they pay for a test and test negative for COVID-19 .
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