CDC Updates Regarding Quarantine Protocols

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) have released revised guidelines to reduce quarantine for the contacts of persons with COVID-19 infection using symptom monitoring and diagnostic testing.  The 14 days of quarantine is still recommended. The following options have been presented to shorten quarantine and are acceptable alternatives to balance personal burden against a small possibility of increasing the spread of the virus:

In some instances, quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.

Additional criteria must also be met:

• No clinical evidence of COVID-19 has been elicited by daily symptom monitoring; and,
• Daily symptom self-monitoring continues through quarantine Day 14; and,
• Persons strictly adhere to masking and physical distancing through quarantine Day 14. If any symptoms develop, they should immediately self-isolate.
• Note: symptoms now include headache, congestion, fatigue, and diarrhea.

A Review of Isolation and Quarantine Recommendations

Isolation:

• Patients must isolate while awaiting test results. If COVID-19 is highly suspected, the patient’s household members are strongly advised to quarantine as well.
• Patients with a confirmed case of COVID-19 must isolate for a full 10 days after their symptom onset or positive test result (returning to normal activities on the 11th day) and fever must be absent for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.
• Severe illness requiring hospitalization or severely immunocompromised patients must isolate for a full 20 days after symptom onset.
• Patients who are asymptomatic at the time of their positive test who later develop symptoms must isolate for 10 days after symptom onset, not the date of their positive test.

Quarantine:

People with a known COVID-19 exposure must quarantine for:

• Recommended 14 days after exposure; or,
• 10 days after exposure as long as no symptoms have developed and the exposed person adheres to strict masking and distancing and continues symptom monitoring through Day 14.

Mask usage (by either the confirmed case or the exposed person) does not negate the need for quarantine for the exposed person, except in the case of exposed healthcare workers wearing proper PPE.

UPDATED: Household members of a confirmed COVID-19 case must quarantine for 14 or 10 days (as explained above) beyond the day of last contact with the case while they were infectious. This can be as long as 20-24 days (10 days of infectiousness for case plus 10 or 14 days of standard quarantine after exposure). Note that this period starts over for uninfected household members as new cases are identified.

Household members of a single exposed person (such as a child exposed in school) do not need to quarantine with the exposed person unless the exposed person develops symptoms and/or tests positive.

For more information about these guidelines, please visit the CDC website.