People with respiratory illness no longer need to isolate for five days if their symptoms are improving, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. The news comes as health systems scale back mask mandates and hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 drop nationwide.
Local health officials largely agreed with the update but still urged those with illnesses to be cautious.
“Today’s announcement reflects the progress we have made in protecting against severe illness from COVID-19,” the CDC director, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said in a news release Friday.
“However, we still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses—this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick.”
The change, which applies to people suffering from COVID-19 and influenza, says patients can resume normal activities if their respiratory symptoms are improving overall, and if they have not had a fever in 24 hours without the help of fever-reducing medication.
Once ending isolation, people are encouraged to enhance their hygiene practices for the next five days, including wearing a well-fitted N95 or KN95 mask, washing hands, and keeping distance from others. Special considerations were listed for those over the age of 65, younger children, the immunocompromised, pregnant people and those with disabilities.
“Respiratory viruses remain a public health threat,” the news release said. “CDC will continue to focus efforts on ensuring the public has the information and tools to lower their risk of respiratory illness by protecting themselves, families, and communities.”
“The bottom line is that when people follow these actionable recommendations to avoid getting sick, and to protect themselves and others if they do get sick, it will help limit the spread of respiratory viruses, and that will mean fewer people who experience severe illness,” National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said. “That includes taking enhanced precautions that can help protect people who are at higher risk for getting seriously ill.”
Amy Crawford-Faucher, vice chair of Allegheny Health Network’s Primary Care Institute, said she thought the guidelines were practical and hoped they would reduce the spread of other respiratory illnesses, given that the guidelines were not coronavirus-specific.
“It might actually be helpful to say, ‘We don’t care what your respiratory illness is, don’t come back until you’re better,’” she said. “It might have the added benefit of normalizing keeping others safe in a less charged way.”
Officials worried, though, that the guidelines could be read selectively—that people would read “24-hour isolation” without taking further precautions.
“One concern is that people will not be worried about COVID and will continue to not vaccinate,” she said. “In general, what we are seeing is that people who are hospitalized with COVID continue to be unvaccinated.”
The most recent shot is called monovalent because it protects against currently circulating subvariants of Omicron, one variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
As of early last month, 31 million updated COVID shots had been administered to adults in the U.S. But the vaccine rate has been low among certain states.
Preliminary data from the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases found that 70% of all adults who were hospitalized with COVID during October and November had no record of a bivalent booster or updated monovalent shot. That metric was highest for people ages 18 to 49, of which 87% of those hospitalized had not been properly vaccinated.
“If you are not vaccinated, you should consider getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Crawford-Faucher. Updated vaccines are available at pharmacies such as Rite Aid and CVS, at the Pitt Health Connection and Vaccination Hub in Nordenberg Hall in Oakland, at the Allegheny County Health Department Immunization Clinic on First Avenue, Downtown, or by calling a primary care provider.
Hospitalization rates from COVID were also highest for those 75 and older, compared to other ages.
“All [the guidelines are] saying is that we are out of the pandemic phase,” said Maureen Lichtveld, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. “This doesn’t mean we should let our guard down. If you have a chronic disease, or if you’re over 65, nothing has changed for you.
“It is our responsibility to be public health smart to protect ourselves and also to protect others ” she added. “This is about how you protect children, how you protect coworkers, how you protect the people in the grocery store. It’s about how you engage in risky behavior if you’re infected.”
First Published: March 1, 2024, 11:46 p.m.
Updated: March 2, 2024, 3:01 a.m.
