Symptom-Based Strategy to Discontinue Isolation for Persons with COVID-19

 

The CDC has extended the time that recovered COVID-19 patients should remain isolated. In particular, recovered patients should isolate for at least 10 days — rather than 7 — after symptom onset and for at least 3 days after recovery. (The agency defines recovery as the “resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications with progressive improvement or resolution of other symptoms.”)

The CDC notes that replication-competent virus has not been cultured more than 9 days after illness onset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stricter requirements — such as longer periods of isolation or testing of respiratory specimens for viral burden — may be appropriate for certain patients. These may include people who could transmit the virus to higher-risk individuals (e.g., those with underlying health conditions), those living in retirement homes and other congregate settings, and those who are immunocompromised and may shed the virus longer than others.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/strategy-discontinue-isolation.html