US CDC plans to drop five-day COVID isolation guidelines - Washington Post

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell

(Reuters) -The U.S. CDC plans to drop its five-day COVID-19 isolation recommendations under new guidance planned by the agency, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The health agency plans to recommend people who test positive for COVID-19 to take a call on when to end isolation based on their symptoms.

People with mild and improving symptoms would no longer need to stay home if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours, the report said citing CDC officials familiar with the matter, adding the new recommendations would not apply to hospitals and other health-care settings with more vulnerable populations.

The government has yet to sign off on the guidelines the agency is expected to release in April for public feedback, the report added.

“There are no updates to COVID guidelines to announce at this time. We will continue to make decisions based on the best evidence and science to keep communities healthy and safe,” CDC said in an email response.

The guidelines for isolation when tested positive for COVID-19 has not been updated since Dec. 2021, when the CDC had shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days.

CDC data showed nearly 86% of COVID-19 cases in the United States, as of Jan. 19, were caused by the sub-variant JN.1, classified as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization.

(Reporting by Chandni Shah and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson and Krishna Chandra Eluri)