CDC shortens COVID-19 isolation period and aligns with California. Here’s what to know

Brianna Taylor
·2 min read
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially changed its COVID-19 guidance on Friday, March 1.

What does it mean and how could it affect your everyday life?

Here’s what to know:

What changes with the CDC coronavirus guidance?

The CDC no longer recommends that people who test positive for the novel coronavirus need to stay home for at least five days. However, you should still take precautions during that time.

Under the new guidelines, people can leave home isolation if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication, and their symptoms are not severe and are improving. This aligns with the guidance for other respiratory illnesses, including flu and RSV.

“Acknowledging that people can be contagious even without symptoms, the CDC urged those who end isolation to limit close contact with others, wear well-fitted masks, improve indoor air quality and practice good hygiene, like washing hands and covering coughs and sneezes, for five days,” The New York Times reported Friday.

Similar to the CDC’s guidance, California public health officials say the length of someone’s isolation period should be determined based on the severity of their symptoms.

Under the state Department of Public Health recommendation, updated in January, Californians who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to isolate for five days.

CDPH recommends people who test positive for COVID-19 stay home until they:

  • Don’t have a fever for 24 hours without fever-reducing medications

  • And have symptoms are “mild and improving”

Expert: Changing COVID protocol ‘comes with a responsibility’

Reports first started circulating in mid-February about the potential changes to CDC guidelines.

At the time, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong told The Sacramento Bee that “I think it’s reasonable to move on, but it comes with a responsibility.” He’s a professor at UC San Francisco and specializes in infectious disease.

He said navigating the new protocols would mean an ongoing and collective effort to test and wear masks when sick, stay up to date on vaccinations and prioritize safety for the most vulnerable.

Chin-Hong said determining how to approach this new phase of COVID-19, four years after the pandemic, is “really complex.”

Where can I get free at-home COVID tests?

U.S. residential households are eligible for another round of free at-home COVID-19 self-tests through the U.S. Postal Service.

Each order includes four individual rapid antigen COVID-19 tests.

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