BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to come out with new isolation guidelines around April.
It is expected that the new guidelines will reveal if you have COVID, you're free of fever without the use of medications, and you have mild symptoms that are improving, you will no longer need to isolate.
Health experts, including Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of Infectious Disease at the Jacobs School of Medicine, believe the recommendation will be for a person to still wear a mask for 10 days and avoid people who are a high risk for serious infection from COVID.
Russo said he believes "what the CDC is trying to do is align isolation recommendations with those that we follow for influenza and RSV at this time." He added "it's important for people to realize that COVID remains a serious disease, particularly for those high risk individuals. It's more lethal than influenza and individuals, even if they're no longer having a fever and their symptoms improving, may be infectious."
He advises mask wearing or 10 days and avoid high risk individuals.
"I think that there's a certain amount of social responsibility here to be considerate of others, particularly those at high risk and combined, getting out of isolation," Dr. Russo said.
The CDC makes recommendations, it is up to the state or local health departments to institute their own guidance and isolation policies.
"I think another reason the CDC is reconsidering a change in policy is try to align with the reality of what we're seeing. Fewer people are testing for COVID, and unfortunately, many people are going out when they're still sick, which will obviously increase the likelihood of transmitting COVID to other individuals, something that obviously we would like to avoid. By changing this policy, for people to get out of isolation sooner when they meet the designated criteria, hopefully then we'll encourage people to go ahead and test again and at least remain isolated during the time frame when they're most infectious and importantly embrace mask use once they get out of isolation, which is another critical measure to minimize transmission," the doctor said.