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The CDC has announced new quarantine guidelines for people who were exposed to coronavirus. The new guideline reduces the length of time from 14-days to 10-days without symptoms or 7-days with no symptoms and a negative test. The officials said the shorter time period is aimed to encourage more people to quarantine. On Wednesday, COVID-19 Incident Manager at CDC, Dr. Henry Walke issued a press statement. He said, “Reducing the length of quarantine may encourage more people to do so, especially when they may not be able to work during quarantine time”. Walke said the agency still recommends 14-days but is now offering 2 acceptable alternative quarantine periods. He said, “As we learn more about the virus, we continue to refine our guidance”.

Walke also emphasized that everyone should quarantine if they are exposed or are concerned about exposure to the coronavirus. People should continue to monitor themselves for symptoms for 14-days after exposure, even if they end quarantine sooner. The chief medical officer for the CDC, Dr. John Brooks said the residual risk of someone exposing someone else after leaving quarantine is only about 1% when quarantine is reduced to 10-days. He said, “The recommendation made today is from extensive modeling not just by the CDC but by other scientific institutes. All of these point to the same thing that a person leaving quarantine early could expose someone else.  When reduced to 10-days, the residual risk is 1%, the upper limit of that risk is 12%. 7-days is 5%, and the upper limit is 10%”.

The former commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Scott Gottlieb informed CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that a shortened recommended quarantine period should capture the vast majority of coronavirus infections. He said, “What you want are recommendations that are prudent and practical that people are going to follow. And when you have a 14-day quarantine period, that’s such a long period of time that a lot of people aren’t going to follow that anyway, and it makes it difficult to adhere to recommendations. So putting in place a 10-day quarantine period, even a seven-day quarantine period, you’re going to capture the vast majority of infections within that time frame”. Point to be noted that the CDC has yet to update the official quarantine guidance posted on its website.