Healthcare workers infected with or exposed to SARS-CoV-2 may now return to work in seven days or less, and some may be advised to remain on the job, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says.
The new guidance reduces the previously recommended isolation and quarantine time from 10 days. Workers who are asymptomatic can return to work after seven days if they receive a negative COVID-19 test, and be back on the job in even fewer days when a business is suffering severe staffing shortages, CDC announced during the winter holidays.
In addition, there is no need for healthcare workers to quarantine at home after high-risk exposure if they have received all of their COVID-19 vaccine doses — including a booster shot — the agency said.
The change is, in part, a response to the desperate need to keep a shrinking pool of American healthcare workers on the job, according to federal health officials. New information on the omicron variant also influenced the revised recommendation, CDC said.
Omicron’s path from infection to transmission is a markedly shorter one than earlier versions of the virus. The original variant and the delta version, for example, have incubation periods of up to two weeks before symptoms appear, and a longer transmission window.
In contrast, workers and others infected with the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant are most likely to transmit the illness within a five-day period — up to two days before symptoms begin and for two to three days afterward, the agency explained.
CDC has also recommended shortening the isolation and quarantine periods for the public (not including healthcare workers) to five days.
For additional details and context regarding these changes, visit McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
