CDC considers another change to COVID isolation guidelines

Update: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday it would not be adding a testing requirement to its isolation guidelines for people infected with COVID-19 who want to end their isolation after five days.

Original story:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering adding a testing requirement to its new COVID-19 isolation guidelines, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

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The White House’s chief medical adviser said there was “concern” that the CDC told people to isolate for five days, but did not recommend that they get a negative test before leaving isolation.

“That (a recommendation for a negative test) is something that is now under consideration,” Fauci said Sunday on “This Week.”

The comments came after the CDC last week cut the number of days it recommends that those who have tested positive for COVID-19 to remain quarantined. The CDC had said that those who test positive for COVID remain in isolation for 10 days.

According to the agency, research that shows the majority of COVID-19 transmissions generally occur one to two days before symptoms start and two to three days after they start. That information was the basis for the shortening of the isolation guidelines.

“Some science has demonstrated less than a third of people are isolating when they need to,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said. “And so, we really want to make sure that we had guidance in this moment — when we were going to have a lot of disease — that could be adhered to, that people were willing to adhere to and that spoke specifically to when people were maximally infectious.”

“Looking at it again, there may be an option in that, that testing could be a part of that, and I think we’re going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the CDC,” Fauci said on “This Week.”

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