CDC No Longer Requires Five-Day COVID Isolation

There are currently concerns about the existing orders for work and school attendance in Indiana at a time of a growing number of cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer require the initial five-day isolation and have suggested that positive-tested individuals should stay at home until symptoms start to improve and they can stay fever-free for one day. However, the ins from Indiana University School of Medicine advise a shorter isolation time of five days only to students that are not living or staying in contact with high-risk groups of people.

The Indianapolis Public Schools have provided a set of standards that they require students to only attend class if they have been isolated for one day minimum and make sure that there is an improvement in their health and at least a day of being fever-free. As Dr. Graham Carlos, the associate chief of internal medicine at Eskenazi Health says, the five-day isolation is ordered by IU is an excellent call since the children are usual at little risk from severe COVID-19 symptoms.

The change is indicative of a changed approach to the issue of COVID-19 as a perfectly manageable respiratory illness similar to the flu, with a renewed emphasis being placed on the need to mask to prevent any new type of flu, as causation by the omicron variant example shows. Moreover, testing for the coronavirus is still necessary for the high-risk group of people who may still experience severe symptoms and even long COVID, an affordable at-home option should be considered.