C.D.C. Eases Covid Guidelines, Noting Virus Is ‘Here to Stay’ - The New York Times

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened Covid-19 guidelines on Thursday, freeing schools and businesses from the onus of requiring unvaccinated people exposed to the virus to quarantine at home.

“High levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection, and the many tools that we have available to protect people from severe illness and death, have put us in a different place.”.

said it is making changes now because vaccination and prior infections have granted many Americans some degree of protection against the virus, and treatments, vaccines and boosters are available to reduce the risk of severe illness.

no longer recommends that people stay six feet away from others.

Instead, it notes that avoiding crowded areas and maintaining a distance from others are strategies that people may want to consider in order to reduce their risk.

People who are exposed to the virus no longer must quarantine at home regardless of their vaccination status, although they should wear a mask for 10 days and get tested for the virus on Day 5, according to the new guidelines.

Contact tracing and routine surveillance testing of people without symptoms are no longer recommended in most settings.

The guidelines around masking — which recommend that people wear them indoors in places where community Covid-19 levels are high — have not changed.

Among adults 65 and older, who are at highest risk of severe illness, 65 percent have received a booster.

Unvaccinated students who are exposed to the virus will no longer need to test frequently in order to remain in the classroom, an approach known as “test to stay.” The C.D.C.

no longer recommends a practice known as cohorting, in which schools divide students into smaller groups and limit contact between them to reduce the risk of viral transmission.