Public Health endorses isolation/quarantine guidance updates
Guest User
Grays Harbor County Public Health has endorsed the new isolation and quarantine guidance for the general public announced by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) Tuesday.
The guidance, recommended by the CDC, calls for all those who test positive for COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, to isolate for five days, down from the previous 10-day guideline. If after five days you have no symptoms, or your symptoms are improving, you can leave isolation while continuing to wear an appropriate mask.
Those exposed to COVID-19 who are unvaccinated or not up to date on vaccines – more than six months outside their series of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or two months out from a Johnson & Johnson vaccine and have not had a booster – should stay home for five days, and get tested on the fifth day if at all possible. If the test is negative you can leave quarantine if you continue to mask.
If you are up to date with vaccinations and are exposed, you do not need to quarantine, but should continue to mask for 10 days, and get tested by day five of the exposure if at all possible. If symptoms occur, quarantine until a negative test confirms the symptoms are not COVID-19.
“Grays Harbor Public Health endorses and recommends that the community follows the new guidance issued by the Washington State Department of Health regarding isolation and quarantine,” said Grays Harbor County Public Health Director Mike McNickle. “Our mission is to protect the public’s health, and this new guidance still assures that the public’s health continues to be our top priority during this latest wave of COVD-19 cases.”
The CDC released these new recommendations after research indicating the majority of transmission occurs in the first day or two of the onset of symptoms of COVID-19 and the two to three days after.
Vaccination remains the best weapon against COVID-19. The CDC reports that data from South Africa and the United Kingdom demonstrate that vaccine effectiveness against infection for two doses of an mRNA vaccine is approximately 35%. A COVID-19 vaccine booster dose restores vaccine effectiveness against infection to 75%. COVID-19 vaccination decreases the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19.