Jefferson County Health Department Adopts CDC Changes to COVID-19 Quarantine Period

Jefferson County Health Department recommends COVID-19 case contacts follow the updated CDC guidance for COVID-19 quarantine period.

Per new CDC guidance, an individual can end quarantine after day 10 with no symptoms or they can test out of quarantine on day 7 if they show no symptoms AND have a negative diagnostic test. In both cases, additional criteria must be met as well, including wearing a mask through day 14 and continued symptom monitoring.

  • Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.

    • With this strategy, residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 1% with an upper limit of about 10%.

  • When diagnostic testing resources are sufficient and available, then quarantine can end after Day 7 if a diagnostic specimen tests negative and if no symptoms were reported during daily monitoring. The specimen may be collected and tested within 48 hours before the time of planned quarantine discontinuation (e.g., in anticipation of testing delays), but quarantine cannot be discontinued earlier than after Day 7.

    • With this strategy, the residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 5% with an upper limit of about 12%.

Additional information on the quarantine period updates can be found on the CDC website https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/scientific-brief-options-to-reduce-quarantine.html

Due to limited testing capacity at Jefferson County Health Department, JCHD cannot provide testing to release from quarantine. Individuals will need to seek testing elsewhere to meet that criteria. Additional testing options can be found on the health department website www.jeffcohealth.org