BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County has now adopted the new quarantine updates decided on by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These updates allow fully vaccinated individuals and those who have recovered from COVID-19 to not follow the same quarantine guidelines as others, if they meet certain conditions.
People who have gone two weeks since the second dose of their Pfizer or Moderna vaccines may not have to quarantine, so long as it has been less than 90 days since their second dose and they have not had any COVID-19 symptoms (remain asymptomatic) since being exposed and since being vaccinated.
This includes if the person recently traveled to a state outside New York.
This doesn't include international travel, including Canada, or people who are fully vaccinated and hospitalized or living in a health care setting. They will still need to follow normal COVID-19 quarantine guidelines.
For people who recovered from COVID-19, they will have had to been diagnosed with COVID using a PCR or antigen test and met the criteria to be released from isolation to be considered for quarantine exemption.
The Erie County Department of Health added that people will also have to meet this criteria to not quarantine:
- [Be] Within the first 90 days following the onset of symptoms of their initial laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infection or within the first 90 days of their first positive COVID-19 test result if they were asymptomatic during initial infection, and
- Remains asymptomatic since the new exposure
The Erie County Department of Health will ask updated questions to reflect these situations when making decisions about quarantine during contact tracing. The DOH still recommends wearing a mask and following social distancing, even if you've been vaccinated or had COVID-19 before.