CDC Says People With COVID-19 No Longer Need to Isolate at Home for 5 Days

People who test positive for COVID-19 no longer need to isolate at home for five days, the CDC said in its updated recommendations. Instead, people who have symptoms of respiratory viruses like COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or the flu should stay home until their symptoms start improving and they’re fever-free for 24 hours without taking medications to lower their temperature.

In addition, the CDC now recommends masking for five days after leaving isolation — down from 10 days — and suggests that masks may provide similar benefits for those with COVID-19 and those with other respiratory illnesses.

“COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV,” the CDC said in its updated recommendations.

Why Is the CDC Changing Its COVID-19 Isolation Recommendations?

While the CDC’s new advice has been met with alarm by some infectious disease experts, many believe the new approach makes sense.

Many people have at least some immunity to COVID-19 from being vaccinated or previously infected with the virus, explains George Rutherford, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California in San Francisco. Widespread availability of COVID-19 tests, and the decrease in contagiousness among asymptomatic people by day six of their infection, also support the new CDC recommendations, Dr. Rutherford adds.

“I think this is the right move at this time,” he says.

Current coronavirus strains, like the JN.1 variant, are also associated with less severe disease, and are easier to manage with available vaccines and treatments that can help prevent severe illness, making it logical to handle this virus similarly to the way other respiratory infections are treated, says Matthew Binnicker, PhD, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

“Given the less severe disease caused by currently circulating strains and new tools we have to prevent and manage disease, the elimination of the five-day isolation brings the nation into alignment with how we handle other common respiratory infections, such as influenza and RSV,” Dr. Binnicker says.

The CDC’s move to shorten the isolation timeline for COVID-19 is probably a match with what most people with mild illness are already doing, points out Emily Hyle, MD, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard University in Boston.

“This approach aligns with the idea of helping people with mild illness to return to normal activities,” Dr. Hyle says. “With limited access to sick leave in the United States and concerns about children missing many school days, I can see why this approach has been endorsed.”

If You Have Symptoms, Stay Home if Possible and Wear a Mask in Public

“If individuals have respiratory symptoms such as cough, fever, body aches, or a runny nose, it is still recommended to stay home, or if you have to go out in public, to wear a mask,” Binnicker adds.

Masking for even longer than the CDC’s recommended five days after leaving isolation may help reduce transmission, Hyle notes.

“It’s not so much that we no longer need to worry about COVID,” Hyle says. “We still need to use the tools available to reduce serious illness and deaths from COVID.”