CDC Chief Says US Halved COVID-19 Quarantine Time as That's What People Will Tolerate

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US health authorities halved to five days the quarantine period for those who had not fallen sick despite exposure to the novel coronavirus as studies showed that is what most people were willing to endure, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.

“It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate,” Walensky said during an appearance on CNN. “We have seen relatively low rates of isolation for all of this pandemic. Some science has demonstrated (that) less than a third of people are isolating when they need to. So we really want to make sure that we had guidelines in this moment [which] people were willing to adhere to.”

Prior to its latest recommendation, the CDC recommended a ten-day quarantine for any individual not exhibiting illness from suspected exposure or confirmed infection with the novel coronavirus.

The revision came after the Biden administration decided to reduce quarantine periods for infected healthcare workers without symptoms so that they could continue attending to sick people.

Walensky’s comments came amid increasing evidence found by health authorities in recent weeks that exposure or infection related to the new coronavirus Omicron variant seldom leads to serious illness or death.

Data shows that nearly 75% of the US population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while nearly 62% has had two doses that fulfill the “fully vaccinated” definition.