SALT LAKE CITY — People who test positive for COVID-19 may be able to go back to work and school sooner as the Washington Post reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to ease up on the 5-day recommended isolation period.
According to “three agency officials,” the CDC will recommend that people who test positive for the coronavirus use clinical symptoms to determine when to end isolation.
In the end, it will mean people would no longer need to stay home for five days after testing positive, as long as they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medication.
Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, emphasized the plan is not in place in Utah just yet.
“We're still recommending the CDC guidelines, which is the five days isolation, staying away from other people and then five days with a mask on if you have COVID,” she said.
However, Dr. Nolen added that if and when the CDC decides to change guidelines, Utah would be ready to loosen that 5-day recommendation.
“I think everybody is ready to get back to normal. I can totally understand that,” said Dr. Nolen, “But I also think it's a reasonable thing not to change while we're in the middle of a winter season when we know that there's a lot of the virus going around. So I can, I think it's appropriate for CDC to see how things are going and wait until a time where there's not a large amount of virus circulating to make the changes.”
As of Tuesday, Utah is on a slight downturn on the state’s COVID-19 infections after a peak in cases and hospitalizations right around the beginning of the year.
“I am happy to say that this winter is definitely very different than the last winter or the winter before that,” said Nolen, “We still are seeing a fair number of people get sick, go into the emergency room and unfortunately, some people even get hospitalized and die, but we are definitely less than we were at the peak.”
Nolan urged people to get updated vaccines to help reduce the risk of severe symptoms.
“The data from CDC that they published just recently showed that actually the vaccine for this year was very good at keeping people out of the hospital," she said, "keeping them from even going to the emergency room.”
