CDC announces elimination of quarantine and distancing measures for COVID

Health authorities in the United States eliminate some Covid-19 quarantine recommendations.

The CDC also ended social distancing measures.

The change is because most of the population has some level of immunity.

Are we finally returning to normal? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the elimination of some quarantine and distancing measures that were implemented in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, according to the AP.

The US health agency relaxed its guidelines for dealing with Covid-19 on Thursday, August 11, withdrawing a recommendation that Americans self-quarantine if they were in close contact with a person infected with coronavirus.

CDC also dropped social distancing recommendations

The CDC also said that people no longer have to be at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from others, one of the most widely applied measures around the world since the start of the pandemic.

The changes, implemented more than two and a half years after the pandemic began, are due to the recognition that approximately 95% of Americans ages 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity either because they were vaccinated or because they had contracted the disease, the AP reported.

School testing will be different this year

«The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from the last two years,» said Greta Massetti of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an author of the guidelines. Many parts of the country have long since lifted social distancing rules and other restrictions that were once common, but some of the changes could be especially important for schools, which resume classes this month in some areas.

Perhaps the biggest change related to education is the removal of the recommendation that schools conduct routine daily testing, though that practice may be reinstated in certain situations during a spike in infections, officials said.

No more «test-to-stay» in schools

The CDC has also dropped the “test-to-stay” recommendation, which said students exposed to Covid-19 could get tested daily — instead of quarantining at home — to continue attending school. As there is no longer a quarantine recommendation, the testing recommendation has also disappeared.

The use of masks is still recommended in areas where community transmission of the coronavirus is considered to be high or if a person is believed to be at high risk of severe illness. School districts across the United States have scaled back their Covid-19 precautions in recent weeks, even before the latest guidelines were released. Some have promised that they will re-implement pre-pandemic school processes.

What about masks?

Two signs ask people to keep a distance of 6 feet from each other at Norris High School on July 29, 2020, in Omaha, Nebraska. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Masks will be optional in most districts when classes resume this fall and some of the nation’s largest districts have reduced or eliminated Covid-19 testing requirements. On the other hand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday updated its recommendations on the number of times that people exposed to Covid-19 should be tested.

Previously, the FDA advised performing two rapid antigen tests over two to three days to rule out infection. The agency now recommends three tests. FDA officials said the change was based on new studies suggesting that the old protocol may miss too many infections and lead people to spread Covid, especially if they don’t develop symptoms, the AP explained.