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Mar 1, 2024 · People who test positive for Covid no longer need to isolate for five days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Jan 20, 2022 · There’s a new federal resource to get free FDA-authorized coronavirus test kits. At COVIDtests.gov , you’ll find information about testing and a link to the U.S. Postal Service – special.usps.com/testkits – where you can order up to four rapid tests to be sent to your home address.
May 8, 2024 · The CDC has released new COVID guidelines. See the current guidelines to follow after testing positive, including whether to isolate and when to return to work.
- Overview
- When are people most contagious with omicron?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday clarified its guidance for people who want to use tests when they're done isolating at home with Covid-19.
The agency now says people can use rapid antigen tests around day five of their isolation periods if they want to and have access to them — but it stopped short of requiring them.
Full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic
Earlier isolation guidelines the CDC released last week came under intense public scrutiny as the agency shortened the time people should isolate after they test positive from 10 days to five. There was no mention of adding negative tests to leave isolation, although people were advised to continue wearing masks around others for five more days.
Some health experts pushed back, saying that without negative tests, asymptomatic people could still spread the coronavirus unknowingly. President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said later that the CDC was expected to add testing to its guidelines.
But the agency stuck with its previous guidance Tuesday: Covid-positive people can, in general, leave isolation after five days if they're free of fever and other symptoms — no test required.
The CDC justified its "no test required" stance by citing data that people are much more likely to be contagious just before symptoms pop up and for just about two to three days afterward.
"The science is evolving, particularly for the omicron variant," the CDC wrote on its website. That variant appears to have an even shorter incubation period than previous variants, such as delta or alpha, did, it said.
A positive antigen test on day five doesn’t tell us much about how transmissible that person is.
Dr. Christopher Ohl, Wake Forest Baptist Health
People tend to be most infectious in "the first two days that you have symptoms," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
"After that, the concentration of virus begins to fall off very, very rapidly. When the concentration of live virus falls off, you become much less infectious to others," he said.
Feb 16, 2024 · The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on March 1 that people with COVID-19 can return to work, school and other activities if their symptoms are mild and improving, and they’ve been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the help of fever-reducing medicine.
- Rachel Nania
Jan 24, 2023 · COVID-19 testing is available at no-cost at ICATT sites to people with or without health insurance who are experiencing symptoms or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. The tests are billed to third-party payers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurers.
Jan 18, 2022 · WASHINGTON — The federal government's website for Americans to order at-home rapid Covid-19 testing kits launched on Tuesday. The website says "every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4...
