In the updated coronavirus guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a change to a symptom-based strategy, rather than an evidence-based strategy, to decide when to stop isolation and resume normal activities . The updates are intended to avoid unnecessarily long isolation and excessive use of laboratory tests.
Most people can stop isolation and precautions 10 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and after a period of fever for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications. This marks a change from a previous recommendation to wait 72 hours after fever rises without using fever-reducing medications. It is important to note that the CDC still recommends 14 days of quarantine after exposure, depending on the time it takes for the disease to develop if infected.
People who are severely immunocompromised or who have a more serious illness should be isolated for 20 days and likely not to be infectious after that point, the CDC said.
There was also a change in language from “improvement in respiratory symptoms” to “improvement in symptoms” to address the expanding list of symptoms associated with COVID-19.
WEST NILE VIRUS SURPASSED DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC? PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT APPOINTS SIMILAR SYMPTOMS
Sometimes the virus is persistent at detectable levels for up to 12 weeks after infection, but it is likely not infectious. For this reason, individuals previously diagnosed with symptomatic COVID-19 who are asymptomatic after recovery should not undergo virus testing within three months of the date of onset of symptoms of initial infection.
The cause of this detectable virus persistence has not yet been determined.
In six months since the virus emerged, the CDC said “there have been no confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection.”
Finally, the CDC advised against the use of serological tests to establish the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 infection or reinfection.
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