The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just updated their guidance on some critical COVID-19 information, changing their suggestion for just how long people spend in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.
The CDC has updated its guidance for COVID-19, where they've made some adjustments to the symptom-based criteria. The CDC explains:
- Changed from "at least 72 hours" to "at least 24 hours" have passed since last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications
- Changed from "improvement in respiratory symptoms" to "improvement in symptoms" to address expanding list of symptoms associated with COVID-19
So what now? If you've just tested positive for COVID-19 then the CDC still says you need to isolate yourself for 10 days starting the day you noticed the symptoms. But the new guidelines adjust what happens after those 10 days, where you'll now need to have "at least 24 hours" pass since you last had a fever -- and have not been taking fever-reducing medications.
The second key change in the CDC's own guidelines to COVID-19 is that they've changed the "improvement to respiratory symptoms" to "improvements in symptoms" to address the wide-range, and continually expanding list of COVID-19 symptoms.
You can read the CDC's article here: "Discontinuation of Isolation for Persons with COVID -19 Not in Healthcare Settings".
