The CDC is developing a guideline that will recommend that coronavirus patients no longer be retested to demonstrate that they have eliminated the disease, a move that occurs amid a national testing crisis.
© Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Admiral Brett Giroir, Undersecretary for Health and Human Services, speaks about the coronavirus during a press conference.
“This is a carryover from the beginning when we had cruises and quarantined people who said the first way out of quarantine was to have two negative tests 24 hours apart,” HHS Test Czar Brett Giroir said Thursday. , to journalists. “That is no longer necessary, and it is medically necessary.”
He said that most patients can come out of isolation after three days without symptoms, as long as at least 10 days have passed since their symptoms began. Certain diagnostic tests can produce false-positive results for people who are no longer contagious, Giroir said, because the tests collect “residual debris from the virus.”
The bottom line, he said, is that repeated tests of people who are sick at home are “clogging the system.”
Background: The next change in federal policy comes as growing cases of coronavirus have exhausted the nation’s testing capacity.
Quest Diagnostics announced Monday that the average response times for non-priority coronavirus tests now exceed the week, adding that the situation will not improve until the spread of the virus slows.
It is not a preservation tactic: When asked if the CDC change was aimed at reducing pressure on the country’s testing system, Giroir said the decision is based on medical science.
“There is no tactic about it. It is not the result of scarcity. It is unnecessary, ”he said. “If we thought it necessary to reevaluate people, we would say so.”
Exceptions: The virus can stay longer in seriously ill patients who need intensive care units or are immunodeficient, according to Giroir. “Those are the ones who see their healthcare provider,” he said.
Whats Next: Giroir said the government is “tapping the i’s and crossing the t’s” in the recommendations, so expect to see CDC issue the document soon.
Video: Mosquitoes Flying Free as Health Departments Focus on Viruses (Associated Press)
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