In a startling indication of shifting perceptions on the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that Americans suffering from Covid or other respiratory illnesses do not have to stay home for five days before going back to work or school.
According to agency authorities, people with respiratory diseases can go back to their regular activities if they haven’t had a fever for at least 24 hours without medicine and if their symptoms are getting better.
The C.D.C. advised individuals who are coming out of isolation to minimize close contact with others, wear masks that fit properly, enhance indoor air quality, and maintain excellent hygiene for five days, including hand washing and concealing coughs and sneezes. This is because it is acknowledged that people can be contagious even without symptoms.
The C.D.C. ‘s director, Dr. Mandy Cohen, told reporters on Friday that people should find it simpler to comply with the guidelines because they cover COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, among other respiratory illnesses.
“Our objective is to safeguard individuals who are susceptible to severe illnesses, while also providing comfort to people that these guidelines are straightforward, intelligible, and achievable,” she stated.
Dr. Cohen reported that most hospitalizations this winter were due to Americans who had not had the most recent vaccinations, and he emphasized the significant drops in the number of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths compared to prior years.
She also mentioned that vaccination lowers the risk of long-term COVID-19.
When record infections brought the country to a standstill during the Omicron wave two years ago, the C.D.C. last modified its guideline about isolation for patients with COVID-19. The 10-day isolation period was reduced to five days.
According to Dr. Brendan Jackson, the head of the agency’s respiratory virus response team, the government is standardizing the recommendations for respiratory infections because the viruses transmit similarly, making it difficult to distinguish between the illnesses’ symptoms, and they may be prevented using similar tactics.
A few outside specialists praised such an adjustment. Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease expert at Bellevue Hospital Center and editor at large for public health at KFF Health News, said, “I think that makes a lot of sense because people are not testing.”
“How are you supposed to follow the right guidance for Covid versus flu versus R.S.V. versus the common cold virus if you don’t know which virus you have?” she said.
Some experts expressed concern that the adjustment may give the impression that Covid was no longer a threat to the public even as the agency debated it. Additionally, they were concerned that companies would put pressure on workers to return to work before they are well if there was no advice to isolate them for five days.
According to Dr. Gounder, not much has been done to enhance indoor air quality in most regions, and many individuals find it awkward to wear masks in social situations.
She said, “This is once more placing a great deal of responsibility on the individual to practice good public health.” She said that lowering the cost of masks and stocking them in public areas and workplaces will encourage people to abide by the new regulations.
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina’s health director, Raynard Washington, stated that authorities needed to keep stressing that COVID-19 posed significant hazards for a large number of individuals.
He said, “Yet we will be able to do public health on the ground at the state and federal level, to send an obvious message to people, with a streamlined, consolidated guidance across the respiratory viral portfolio.”
The guidelines are intended for the broader public and do not apply to healthcare or assisted living facilities.
Americans should always keep in mind that there might be persons nearby who are more susceptible to a coronavirus illness, according to Dr. Washington.
He remarked,” It’s not like people are wearing signs that say, ‘I’m immunocompromised.”
