The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated respiratory virus guidance this morning. This guidance is posted on the CDC website and being reported in the media.
The guidance removes the recommendation for a 5 day isolation period with COVID-19 infection and urges that people stay home when they are sick with any respiratory illness and practice additional precautions for 5 days after returning to normal activities. This guidance is for community prevention activities and does not apply to healthcare settings.
The CDC’s updated guidance unites and streamlines recommendations for dealing with a range of common respiratory viral illnesses, such as COVID-19, flu, and RSV. The updated recommendations continue to protect those most at risk for severe illness from COVID, flu, and RSV. While every respiratory virus does not act the same, adopting a unified approach makes recommendations easier to understand and thus more likely to be followed, especially when it is unknown what type of illness someone has.
CDC’s first recommendation for people who get sick with a respiratory virus is simple: Stay home and away from others. As part of the guidance, CDC provides active recommendations on core prevention strategies:
o Staying up to date with vaccination to protect people against serious illness, hospitalization, and death. This includes flu, COVID-19, and RSV if eligible.
o Practicing good hygiene by covering coughs and sneezes, washing or sanitizing hands often, and cleaning frequently touched surfaces.
o Taking steps for cleaner air, such as bringing in more fresh outside air, purifying indoor air, or gathering outdoors.
The updated guidance suggests returning to normal activities when symptoms have been getting better overall for 24 hours, and if a fever was present, it has been gone for 24 hours without use of a fever-reducing medication. Once people resume normal activities, they are encouraged to take precaution for the next 5 days to curb disease spread, such as:
o Taking more steps for cleaner air,
o Enhancing hygiene practices,
o Wearing a well-fitting mask,
o Keeping a distance from others, and/or
o Getting testing to inform your actions to prevent spread to others.
The rationale for the changes includes a multitude of factors. While respiratory viruses remain a public threat, the tools that we have to reduce flu, COVID, and RSV are readily available, including vaccines for all three viruses. In addition, we are seeing far fewer hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19. COVID impacts are now similar to other respiratory viruses, but they still pose a significant threat to those at higher risk. Another factor is that more than 98% of the U.S. population now has some degree of protective immunity against COVID-19 due to vaccination, prior infection, or both. States and countries that changed their COVID-19 isolation guidance to recommendations that are similar to CDC’s, did not experience clear increases in community transmission or hospitalization rates. This guidance emphasizes how important vaccination and treatment are to protect yourself and those around you from COVID and other viruses. The COVID virus continues to change and is changing at a faster rate than the flu virus. That is why, based on what we know, CDC anticipates there will be an updated COVID vaccine this year and CDC has started the process to update the COVID vaccine for the 2024/25 respiratory illness season, similar to what happens with the annual flu shot.
“It has been a busy week with announcements from the CDC related to COVID-19. While we have been anticipating the removal of isolation requirements for the general public for some time now and welcome that change, CCPH urges our community to respect that healthcare providers are still required to follow current CDC guidelines which include isolation and masking. We hope that everyone in our community will follow the new CDC guidance that treats COVID similar to other respiratory illnesses while also doing its part to protect those who are at higher risk of serious illness of any type of virus. And, CCPH has ordered more COVID vaccine in anticipation of meeting the needs of people 65 and older who now are recommended to get a second shot this respiratory illness season, and we hope that many older adults in our county will make an appointment with us or another provider in the near future, “says Andrea Carlstrom, Chaffee County Public Health Director.
