By Marlyn Montilla
02 Mar 2024, 09:39 AM EST
US health authorities reduced the isolation recommendation for people who test positive for Covid-19 from five to one, on the condition that they feel better and have no fever.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised that those who were sick with Covid-19 or other respiratory viruses wear a mask for five days when leaving their homes.
“Covid-19 remains a significant threat to public health, but it no longer presents the emergency it once did and its impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory diseases,” the agency said in a report.
For her part, Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC, explained in a press conference that in the last two years, weekly hospitalizations for covid-19 cases have been reduced by more than 75% and weekly deaths have decreased by more than 90%.
Under previous CDC measures, people who were infected with Covid-19 were suggested to wear a mask for up to ten days once the isolation period ended.
Currently, the health entity recommends that those who have a positive result stay at home, update their vaccines, follow hygiene advice and improve the air quality in their homes.
Isolation can end if after 24 hours the person feels better and the body temperature has returned to normal without the administration of any medication.
The covid-19 pandemic began in the United States at the end of 2019 and since then more than 1.2 million deaths have been attributed to it among the 111.5 million cases that were registered.
The CDC statement said that rather than offering specific recommendations, the agency will provide “a unified and practical approach to dealing with the risks of the virus along with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus.”
Keep reading:
- The fight in the WHO between rich and poor countries in order for everyone to have access to vaccines
- They recommend reinforcement of the Covid vaccine in spring
- Alabama Supreme Court ruling on in vitro fertilization: what does it mean?