CDC Cuts COVID Quarantines To As Little As 7 Days
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are preparing to issues new guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the major changes will center around quarantine guidance for those exposed to COVID-19.
The Associate Press reports that the new guidelines will substantially reduce the self-quarantine periods for individuals who have been exposed to COVID-19. The current guidelines call for a 14 day quarantine period, but that will be reduced to 10 days in the new guidelines. That number is further reduced to just 7 days, a 50% reduction in quarantine, if the person receives a negative COVID-19 test after exposure.
The CDC has held the belief that the incubation period for the virus is 14 days, based on their collection of data, they now believe that most people develop symptoms within 4 or 5 days of exposure. Meaning a person would show symptoms within the first 10 days after exposure, justifying the change to the reduced number of days in quarantine.
While this news will help businesses and schools with their COVID policies, the website The Spun immediately pointed out that the biggest winners with the new CDC rules would be sports organizations. Currently the NFL and major college football programs are struggling with the quarantine practices more than the virus itself. With some teams losing entire position groups due to quarantine, and then having none of those quarantined players ever testing positive after exposure.