Senior Trump administration officials are preparing a guideline that will recommend that people who test positive for COVID-19 do not need to be retested to demonstrate that they no longer have the disease.
The move, seen in advance in a call with reporters by administration testing coordinator Brett Giroir, comes as the US testing system faces severe tensions and a national backlog of results.
The guide will represent a major change to ensure that people with COVID-19 do not spread the disease.
Giroir said the change is intended to reduce unnecessary testing.
“This is a carryover from the beginning when we had cruises and quarantined people who said the first way to get out of quarantine was to have two negative tests 24 hours apart,” Giroir told reporters on Thursday. “That is no longer necessary, and it is medically unnecessary.”
Giroir said the guide, which will be released in the coming days, will apply to people who are isolating themselves at home after testing positive.
“If you are a person who is not hospitalized and has COVID and is isolating yourself at home, there is no need to retest,” said Giroir.
Giroir said that most people can leave isolation if they have been symptom-free for three days, provided that at least 10 days have passed since their symptoms began.
Critically ill or immunodeficient patients may need to be reexamined, Giroir said.
“Those are the ones who see their healthcare provider,” he said.
For “the vast majority of diagnosed people who are just sick at home,” retesting is “clogging up the system,” Giroir said.
Giroir said the guide is not being issued as a way to prevent evidence shortages, even when the system is being forced.
Quest Diagnostics, a leading coronavirus testing company, said Monday that “growing demand” due to the increase in cases across the South and Southwest has delayed its average response time for results of a coronavirus test. at least seven days for all but the highest priority patients.
“There is no tactic about it,” said Giroir. “It is not a result of scarcity, it is unnecessary. If we thought it necessary to reevaluate people, we would say so.”
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