(CNN)-Those who conduct positive tests for Covid-19, according to the new guidelines of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday, do not need to stay away from others regularly for at least five days. This change already ends a strategy in the epidemic that experts stated that it is important to control the spread of infection.
The agency says it is updating its recommendations for Covid-19 to suit their advice for other types of respiratory infections including influenza and RSV. Offering a set of integrated guidance will make people more likely to follow it, with agency experts in a news briefing on Friday.
That is, the CDC now says that people who have Kovid -19, should stay home until they become fever -free without medicine for at least 24 hours or are improving their symptoms for 24 hours.
After that, agency experts say it is okay to resume regular activities. But they recommend that people take additional precautions for the next five days – including improving ventilation, masking and limiting close contact with others – to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
These increased precautions are especially important for those who are around weak individuals, such as those who are elderly or immune functions, which are surrounded by cancer -like drug or disease.
Changing the influence of Covid-19 in America
CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said that the agency is changing its guidance as most of the US population has some immune against Kovid and as a result, the country is not seeing large waves of coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Instead, these have turned into small, more predicated bumps in transmission in summer and winter because the nation reaches a kind of stable position with the virus.
And the important thing is that the agency says, despite these waves of disease, serious consequences such as hospitalization and deaths are falling from 2020 and 2021.
In 2021, at its peak, 2.5 million hospitals were hospitalized for Kovid -19, and in 2023, the number fell 60% to 900,000 hospitals.
The decrease in deaths has been even bigger. In 2021, there were 450,000 deaths to Kovid -19; In 2023, the number declined by 83% to about 75,000 deaths.
Covid has fallen for the 10th leading cause of death in the initial figures since 2023 in 2020 and 2021 in 2020, the CDC said.
It is still much more toll than the nation that usually looks at the flu. In the 2022-23 season, the CDC said that some-Panduk was similar to the flu season, the agency estimates that 360,000 flu-related hospitals and 21,000 deaths occurred.
“Today’s announcement shows the progress made to protect Kovid from serious illness,” Cohen said in a news briefing on Friday. “We are in a different position, but we should use devices that work to protect against respiratory viruses. So our update guidance emphasizes some main prevention tasks to protect against serious illness, “Cohen said, emphasizing the first and most importantly, people need to be up -to -date on their vaccines.
He said that he is estimated to be available in the fall compared to an updated Covid-19 vaccine, and people should now make plans to get it. Earlier this week, the CDC recommended people of the age of 65 and received another shot of the current Kovid -19 vaccine before the fall.
Cohen said that when you are ill, it is also important to stay at home, seek testing, and get treatment to reduce the possibility of serious illness.
The declaration does not mean that all viruses do the same function or have the same effect, Cohen said. Instead, he said that to limit the spread of respiratory infections makes it easy to follow them by having a set of uniform recommendations and it is more likely to adopt it. Symptoms-based recommendations also mean that people do not need to test for infection, some many people do not already do.
“In a recent CDC survey, less than half of the people said they would use a test at home if they had new cough or cold symptoms. And it is one of the main reasons that we are targeting this guidance for respiratory viruses and diseases as a group, ”Dr. Brendon Jackson said, who leads the CDC’s National Center for vaccination and respiratory virus reaction in respiratory diseases.
The CDC states that its updated guidance will include specific views for those who are at greater risk than respiratory diseases, such as more than 65 adults, who are immunocomopromed, disabled people or those who are pregnant or recently pregnant.
The agency also says that the new guidance applies only to community settings. There has been no change in recommendations to prevent the spread of covid in clinics, hospitals and other health care settings.
The CDC stated that the new guidance applies only to common respiratory infections. It should not replace specific guidance for pathogens, which require special control measures such as measles.
Asked if more people may get sick at work due to changes in guidelines, especially if they have not paid leave, Cohen said that he hopes that the employers will allow employees to stay at home when they are ill.
“We feel that the option for remote work and paid leave opportunities is an important component.” She also said that she wants to see more employers offering flu shots in her work clinics as well as covid vaccines.
“The bottom line is that when people follow these actionable recommendations to avoid getting sick, and if they become ill to protect themselves and others, it will help limit the spread of respiratory virus, and this would mean that less people who experience serious illness,” the National Center for Municipalization and respiratory diseases. Demetre Dasalkis said. “This involves taking enriched precautions that can help protect people who are at high risk to get seriously ill.”
Daskalkis said that if the symptoms rebound after re -starting normal activities, they should start precautions.
“If people start feeling ill again, they go back to a class, which, stay at home until you feel better for 24 hours, or your fever is resolved. If you have one, add strategies, increased strategies for five extra days, adding increased strategies so that you reduce the risk of transmission,” said Dasailis said.
Some experts disagree on guidance change
Dr, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health of Boston University. Ellie Murray said that like other respiratory viruses want to treat Kovid -19, “But you can’t just renounce science.”
“It is not good science. This is not good public health. It does not provide accurate information to the people, ”he said.
Murray notes that we have learned a lot about how respiratory diseases spread and are best to control them during epidemic. But instead of implementing those lessons, which to help people protect people from other infections, say, this rolling of precautions is sending a harmful message.
“It is reducing the rest of the public health system,” he said. “Because people are listening to, it is,” In fact, diseases are not as bad as we said, and we do not really need to do anything. It is not really bad if some people die. “
While some public health experts have argued that this is the time to eliminate “Covid extraordinary”-Covid-19 behave differently than other respiratory infections-and other believe that this step has been taken.
The founder and director of the Scripps Research Translative Institute, Dr. Eric Topol said to CNN in an email, “I completely disagree with the idea that there is no covid extraordinaryness.” “In the last 4 years, the abundant evidence for this virus tells us that it is a far more dangerous pathogen than the flu, which lacks seasonal, is still developing, has been developed in millions worldwide for a long time, and may not be ‘flu-earth’.
The CDC also noted that the states and countries that have already shortened the recommended separation period have not seen the increase or death in the hospital from the Kovid -19.
There have been critics on all sides during the five-day separation period.
It was seen by employers in industries struggling with shortage of activists such as health care and hospitality. Some parents considered it unnecessarily disruptive to take care of school and child.
At the same time, high-risk people of severe infections have greatly reduced the five-day guidelines, indicating that people often continue to test positively on rapid tests for a long time and perhaps still infectious when they do. For them, the guidelines have been inadequate and unscientific.
“I think it’s, you know, attempts to try to make guidance for the public that is easy. And it does not require a tremendous amount of thinking or reference. Lori Tramel Freeman, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officers, said,” At the same time, there is also an attempt to try to go into the language. Freeman admitted that for a long time to public health people “except for terms of quarantine and isolation, it does not seem great. But there is also a belief that we are inside, and we will understand what to do to easily address their illness. You know, instead of fighting with them.”
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