New Center for Disease Control Guidelines for Quarantine

04 Dec New Center for Disease Control Guidelines for Quarantine

CDC quarantine timeline revised. Now as short as 10 or 7 days, dependent on symptoms and testing.

For up-to-date coronavirus information visit here.

For more information about the state’s COVID-19 dial, visit here.

For more information on Covid testing, visit here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released an update to their COVID-19 quarantine guidelines for those who have been exposed to the coronavirus.

While the gold standard for quarantine duration is 14 days, the CDC has sufficient data to support reducing quarantine periods to 10 or seven days depending on a negative test result and no sign of symptoms. For any resident who has been exposed, for most accurate results, Public Health advises they quarantine immediately and pursue a test no less than five days from their last potential exposure.

Quarantine according to new guidelines ends after seven days if the exposed person remains asymptomatic, gets a PCR or antigen test five days or more from last potential exposure and the test results prove negative for COVID-19.

Quarantine, according to the new guidelines, ends after 10 days if the exposed person remains asymptomatic and does not pursue a PCR or antigen test.

After completing quarantine, exposed residents should always monitor for symptoms closely. If symptoms of COVID-19 develop during the 14 days from a resident’s last potential exposure, they must isolate immediately and notify Public Health. Close contacts should monitor symptoms and take any symptoms, mild or severe, seriously.

“While data supports early release from the standard 14-day quarantine, some risk is assumed with the new CDC guidelines,” said Public Health Director Grace Franklin. “As more is learned about COVID, guidelines are expected to change. Our contact tracing team is working hard to inform affected individuals regarding quarantine times and will continue to communicate these changes to all close contacts going forward.”

For residents presently in quarantine, Public Health will be in contact to address any changes in quarantine duration. Public Health is adopting these new guidelines in an effort to enable the community to return to work safely in the safest and most timely manner.

Public Health has confirmed six new positive cases of COVID-19 from test results received from December 4. Of these cases, all five are residents and all actively contagious cases are currently in isolation. There have been 247 total COVID cases among residents to date with 36 active cases. To learn more about the County’s current COVID-19 metrics, please visit the County COVID-19 dashboard.

• 71-year-old male, nonresident, symptomatic, travel
• 62-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, community
• 45-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, community
• 31-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, household
• 30-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, community
• 29-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, community

San Miguel County will continue posting caseload updates twice a week. The next update will be published on Tuesday, December 8.

Five Commitments of Containment:

• Wear a mask
• Maintain six feet of physical distance
• Minimize group size
• Wash hands frequently
• Stay home when sick and get tested