By Erika Edwards -
NBC News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this Friday eliminated the recommendation of five days of isolation for people who test positive for coronavirus.
The new CDC guidelines align with public health advice for the flu and other respiratory illnesses: stay home when you are sick, but return to school or work when you feel better and are fever-free for 24 hours.
A passenger wearing a face mask on a train in Washington, DC on January 4, 2024. Matt McClain / The Washington Post via Getty Images file
This change reflects the sustained decline in the most severe cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in spring 2020, as well as the implicit recognition that many people do not even get tested despite having symptoms.
“People often don't know what virus they have when they first get sick, so this will help them know what to do in any case,” Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC, said at a press conference on Friday.
Over the past two years, weekly hospital admissions for COVID-19 have dropped by more than 75%, and deaths have dropped by more than 90%, Cohen added.
“To put it another way, in 2021, COVID-19 was the third cause of death in the United States.
Last year, it was the tenth,” Dr. Brendan Jackson, chief of respiratory virus response at CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the briefing.
Many doctors have been urging the CDC for months to lift isolation guidelines, saying they have done little to stop the spread of the virus.
The experiences of California and Oregon, which previously lifted their coronavirus isolation guidelines, showed that to be true.
“Recent data indicate that California and Oregon, where isolation guidelines most closely resemble updated CDC recommendations, are not experiencing an increase in COVID-19 emergency room visits or hospitalizations,” Jackson said.
For Dr. David Margolius, public health director for the city of Cleveland, it makes sense to change isolation for COVID-19 from what is recommended for the flu and other respiratory illnesses.
“We have reached a point where we are suffering from the flu at a higher rate than COVID-19,” he said.
“What these guidelines will do is help reinforce that — regardless of what contagious respiratory viral infection you have — you stay home when you are sick and come back when you feel better.”
Dr. Kristin Englund, an infectious disease expert at the Cleveland Clinic, said this new approach will be beneficial in slowing the spread of all respiratory viruses.
“I think this will help us in the coming years to reduce the number of cases of flu and RSV, and not just coronavirus.”
Still, the decision likely drew criticism from some doctors, who point to the fact that the United States saw 17,310 new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last week alone.