Advocacy News – February 16, 2021
Individuals who have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are exposed to someone with the virus no longer need to quarantine in so far as they remain symptom free, according to new recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week.
Because the vaccines prevent symptomatic COVID-19 infections, and symptomatic people are thought to be more contagious, the CDC said the risk of unnecessary quarantine outweighs the potential unknown risk of transmission among vaccinated people.
The CDC guidance specifies “vaccinated persons with an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not required to quarantine if they meet all of the following criteria: are fully vaccinated (i.e., ≥ 2 weeks following receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series, or ≥ 2 weeks following receipt of one dose of a single-dose vaccine); are within 3 months following receipt of the last dose in the series; and have remained asymptomatic since the current COVID-19 exposure.”