The CDC loosened its Covid-19 guidelines for isolation and testing in schools today, including lifting its prior recommendation that students quarantine if exposed to someone positive for the virus.
Exposed students, as well as unvaccinated people who come into contact with someone with Covid-19, should take a test after five days and wear a mask for 10 days. | Nam Y. Huh/AP PhotoThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened its Covid-19 guidelines for isolation and testing in schools on Thursday as the country emerges from another bruising wave of cases and Americans’ pandemic fatigue continues to deepen.
The new guidance ends last year’s “test-to-stay” recommendation that schools could test exposed students for the virus as a way to avoid quarantine. Exposed students, as well as unvaccinated people who come into contact with someone with Covid-19, should take a test after five days and wear a mask for 10 days. The CDC now only recommends quarantine for anyone who tests positive for Covid-19, suggesting they remain at home for at least five days.
“We know that Covid-19 is here to stay,” said Greta Massetti, author of the CDC report that outlines the new guidelines, during a Thursday briefing. “Currently, high levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection and the many tools that we have available to protect people from severe illness and death have put us in a different space.”