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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is finalizing plans to shorten the recommended quarantine time for people exposed to Covid-19.
The CDC currently recommends that individuals self-quarantine for 14 days after being exposed to people with the coronavirus. The two weeks are based on how long scientists think it takes for the virus to incubate in the body.
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“The CDC is still reviewing its advice and recommendations in light of new understandings of the virus that causes Covid-19, and will announce such changes where appropriate,” an agency spokesperson told NBC on Tuesday. News. The updated approach will likely include testing.
It’s a potential change that the CDC has been considering for weeks.
The eventual recommendation is unknown, but CDC director Dr Robert Redfield said in an October briefing that the agency was considering shortening the length of the quarantine to a week.
At the time, Redfield said researchers were looking at whether “you can use tests during quarantine to determine if you can shorten the quarantine to seven or 10 days.” Without testing, he says, you could miss a percentage of infectious cases.
“Obviously, we don’t want people to be unnecessarily quarantined for 14 days,” Redfield said.
Former CDC chief Dr Tom Frieden agreed that there may be a need to make quarantines more acceptable to the general public.
“We need to optimize the quarantine,” said Frieden, who is currently chair of the global public health initiative, Resolve to Save Lives. “We know the greatest risk is from the fourth to the seventh day. After that the risk is lower” for transmission, he said.
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The CDC gave an indication of the evolution of the quarantine strategy on November 20 with its updated guidelines on international travel. The agency advised international travelers to “get tested three to five days after travel and stay home for seven days after travel.”
If the test is negative, “stay home for seven full days.” Without testing, travelers must stay at home for 14 days.
In an independent briefing on Tuesday, Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary of Health Dr Brett Giroir spoke of a “preponderance of evidence” that quarantine, supplemented by testing, could be shortened 14 days.
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Erika Edwards and Denise Chow contributed.
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