The new guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't offer much in the way of changes to how Americans handle the Pandemic.
If you know you've been exposed to someone with CO, you don't need to be involuntarily hospitalized if you're not up to date on your vaccinations. If a person isn't up-to-date, the CDC recommends that they wear a mask for 10 days and get tested for COVID-19. Almost 70% of the US population is not up to date on their vaccinations.
The CDC had previously said that people who are up to date on their vaccines don't need to wear a mask, but only test for the disease.
The end of the CDC's recommendation for school "test-to-stay" policies is the most consequential of all the updates announced today. Students who weren't up to date could not use negative test results to stay in school. It was an alternative to require such students to stay indoors. The test-to-stay strategy is no longer necessary.
The updated guidance doesn't recommend testing people without symptoms or known exposures, instead requiring healthy people to test negative for events. According to the guidance published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, screening testing may not be cost-effective in general community settings. In high-risk settings, such as long-term care facilities, the CDC suggests screening.
The guidance doesn't emphasize physical distance as a primary Mitigation effort. According to the CDC, people should consider scuttling just one part of how to protect themselves and others. The agency said that people should consider factors such as COVID-19 Community Levels when making a decision.
AdvertisementThe CDC's guidance is less public health oriented. Public health officials stress the need for collective efforts to lower transmission in communities, protect the most vulnerable, and reduce the risk of creating new variants. Personal decision-making is the focus of the current messaging.
People can use information about the current impact on their community to decide which prevention behaviors to use and when, based on their own risk for severe illness and that of members of their household.
According to the CDC, the vast majority of the population has some immunity against COVID-19, which lowers the risk of serious disease and death.
"We're in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools, like vaccination, boosters, and treatments, to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19," according to the lead author of the CDC's guidance. A better understanding of how to protect people from being exposed to the virus is one of the things we have. The guidance helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer wreaks havoc on our lives.
According to the CDC, 40 percent of US counties have high levels of COVID-19 Community Levels and should be masked in public indoor settings. The latest CDC data shows that nearly 94 percent of counties have high levels of COVID-19.
The CDC still advises isolation for those who get COVID-19. If you test positive for COVID-19, you should be isolated for five or more days and wear a mask. People don't need to test negative before they leave their isolation, according to the CDC. People should use two negative tests in 48 hours if they want to end isolation.
The Food and Drug Administration advised that false negatives can be found with at- home COVID-19 tests. People who do not have symptoms but have been exposed to COVID-19 should take three tests in 48 hours to make sure they are free of the disease.
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