CDC updates COVID-19 self-isolation guidelines

If you are recovering from COVID-19, there are some big changes that will allow you out of self-isolation faster. Most people can stop isolating after 10 days and if you haven’t had a fever in 24 hours, your symptoms improve and no test-based strategy needed.

Tina Murphy is a textbook COVID-19 case. She became sick four weeks ago.

“My symptoms started on a Sunday with a real bad cough. I could not stop coughing,” Murphy said. “I called my doctor in the morning, and he recommended, with my symptoms, I go to the ER.”

Murphy told us she followed CDC guidelines to the letter.

“A week later, I tested negative, but I still had some lingering symptoms,” Murphy said. “And my employer said that I couldn’t come back until I was symptom free.”

When Murphy got sick, CDC guidelines said a COVID-19 patient had to get two negative results 24 hours apart and be symptom free for three days before returning to work.

“I mean, I understand the guidelines, and I definitely don’t want to get anybody sick,” Murphy said. “But, at the same time, you know, I’ve had to use all my paid time off to for this.”

Now, the CDC has new guidelines that say, in most cases, after the necessary time in isolation, people can get back to work when the symptoms go away.

That’s because the virus can linger in a patient’s system for weeks.

“My sense of smell has come back,” Murphy said.

Murphy said she is feeling better but still waiting on those test results.

Harvard scientist Joseph Allen told us he uses the new CDC guidelines when advising companies.

“To help them think through what that might mean if someone is really past the period where they are infectious but they still get a positive test,” Allen said. “Technically, according to CDC’s last guidance, that would have meant one thing.”

If you’ve done your time in self-isolation and you’re asymptomatic, the CDC recommends you can return to work. However, if you live with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, the CDC says you must still self-quarantine for 14 days.

MORE: CDC – Duration of Isolation and Precautions for Adults with COVID-19