On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updates to its general COVID-19 community guidance and Operational Guidance for K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education (ECE) Programs. In the updated guidance CDC no longer recommends that students or unvaccinated members of the public quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 if they are asymptomatic. Instead, CDC now recommends those individuals mask for 10 days and test after 5 days. CDC still recommends people who test positive isolate for at least 5 days.
Specific to schools, CDC no longer recommends schools limit students’ contact by cohorting, and the agency also recommends against routine testing for asymptomatic or unexposed students. CDC’s masking guidance for schools remains unchanged, with universal masking indoors recommended in areas of high-level community risk, while masking is recommended for immunocompromised or high-risk individuals or those with high-risk close contacts in areas of medium-level community risk. CDC explained that the revised guidance reflects the availability of more tools – vaccination, boosters, and treatments – to protect against severe illness from COVID-19.