New CDC guidance for isolation and quarantine

On December 27, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated recommendations for people who test positive for COVID-19 and for people who have been exposed.

In a post, Public Health Madison and Dane County offered a quick resource for navigating this new guidance. Campus will be updating information on the Covid Response page, but in the meantime, please consult the following:

IF YOU TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19:

Isolate at home for at least 5 days and wear a mask when around others for an additional 5 days.

• Stay home. Do not go to work, school, or public areas. Separate yourself from other people and animals in your home as much as possible.
  • Stay home and avoid others until you have been at least 24 hours without a fever (without fever-reducing medicine), your symptoms are resolving, and it has been 5 days since the first day you had symptoms. Continue to wear a well-fitted mask around others for 5 additional days.
  • If you have not had any symptoms of COVID-19, stay home and avoid others until 5 days have passed since the day of your COVID-19 test. Continue to wear a well-fitted mask around others for 5 additional days.
• Monitor your symptoms and call before visiting your doctor. If you have an appointment, be sure you tell them you have or may have COVID-19.
• Avoid using public transportation, taxis, or ride-share.
• Tell your employer, school, or child care center about your diagnosis.
  • If the positive test was an at-home test, you can report your or your child’s result and a case investigator will follow-up with you to discuss isolation and contact notification. You should also try to receive a follow-up PCR test collected at a clinic or community test site within 48 hours to confirm the test result.
• If you are having a medical emergency, call 911. Notify dispatch that you have or may have COVID-19.
• You don’t need to get tested again if you’ve recently had a positive test, your test is likely to be positive for many weeks after you recover. You don’t need a negative test to stop isolating.

Notify your close contacts.

• People in your household, and others you had close contact with need to get tested, stay home, and self-monitor for symptoms. See our exposure guidance for details.
• Review our Release from Isolation and Quarantine Guidance PDFfor a detailed guide to know when you and your contacts can stop isolating.

Take steps to limit the spread of COVID in your household.

• Cover coughs and sneezes.
• Wear a mask if you have to be around other people in your household.
• Avoid sharing personal household items like dishes and glasses, or bedding.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds. If you can’t wash your hands, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
• Clean all “high touch” surfaces every day, such as counters, tables, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, phones, and keyboards.

IF YOU WERE EXPOSED TO SOMEONE WITH COVID-19

First, know that you generally need to be in close contact with someone with COVID-19 to get infected.

Close contact includes:

• Living with or caring for a person with confirmed COVID-19, OR
• Being within six feet of a person with confirmed COVID-19 for about 15 minutes (with or without a mask), OR
• Someone with COVID-19 coughing on you, kissing you, sharing utensils with you or you had direct contact with their body secretions.

If you:

• Have been boosted OR
• Completed the primary series of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine within the last 6 months OR
• Completed the primary series of J&J vaccine within the last 2 months

Then:

• Wear a mask around others for 10 days since your last contact.
• Test on day 5, if possible.

However, if you:

• Completed the primary series of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine over 6 months ago and are not boosted OR
• Completed the primary series of J&J over 2 months ago and are not boosted OR
• Are unvaccinated

Then:

• Stay home and quarantine for 5 days since your last contact. After that continue to wear a mask around others for 5 additional days.
• If you can’t quarantine, you must wear a mask around others for 10 days. We strongly recommend quarantine as the safest option to prevent the spread of COVID.
• Test on day 5, if possible.

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You can find more information on PHMDC’s website, including what to do if someone in your household is sick: https://publichealthmdc.com/coronavirus/what-to-do-if-you-are-sick-or-possibly-exposed

Read more about making sense of the new guidance in this blog post from UWMadScience: https://uwmadscience.news.wisc.edu/health/what-should-we-make-of-the-new-cdc-guidance-for-isolation-and-quarantine/