Do vaccinated people need to quarantine after COVID exposure? CDC offers new guidance
People who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and are later exposed to someone with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 are not required to quarantine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But only if they meet certain criteria.
The updated guidance posted Wednesday on the CDC website applies only to those who are exposed to the disease two weeks after receiving their second dose of a two-dose vaccine series, such as for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots.
Health officials say it takes about two weeks after your second shot for your immune system to acquire full protection against severe and symptomatic COVID-19. Exposure to the disease before then may mean you can still get sick, although it’s unlikely.
Other criteria that could eliminate the need to quarantine include people who are within three months after getting their final coronavirus vaccine dose. This means that three months after getting a final shot, vaccinated people should quarantine as usual following COVID-19 exposure due to limited data on how long protection from a vaccine lasts.
Freedom from quarantine also applies to those who have never developed symptoms since being exposed to the virus, the CDC said.
Individuals who don’t meet all three of these criteria should follow the regular 14-day quarantine guidance after potential COVID-19 exposure. Officials say quarantine can be reduced depending on decisions made by local health authorities.
For example, localities can recommend stopping quarantine 10 days after symptoms began with no test or seven days after receiving a negative test result.
“CDC continues to endorse quarantine for 14 days and recognizes that any quarantine shorter than 14 days balances reduced burden against a small possibility of spreading the virus,” the agency said.
The CDC noted that its new quarantine recommendations for vaccinated people will be updated when more data become available and other COVID-19 vaccines are authorized.
So far, scientists know the currently available coronavirus shots are capable of preventing severe and symptomatic COVID-19 with high efficacy, but much remains unknown about how well they can block infection entirely.
This means vaccinated individuals may still catch the coronavirus and spread it to others, even though they don’t get sick with symptoms. Health officials also don’t know how long protection from disease lasts. Research is underway to find these answers.
The addition of more contagious coronavirus variants adds some uncertainty to the mix, too, the CDC says.
Despite the unknowns, the agency says the benefits the vaccines provide outweigh the risks of potential transmission following vaccination and of developing severe COVID-19.
“Vaccination has been demonstrated to prevent symptomatic COVID-19; symptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission is thought to have a greater role in transmission than purely asymptomatic transmission,” the CDC says.
The vaccine is also not a one-way ticket to pre-pandemic life, the agency added. Vaccinated people should still wear masks in public, stay at least 6 feet away from others, avoid crowds, cover coughs and sneezes, wash their hands often and avoid poorly ventilated spaces.
They should also monitor themselves for symptoms for at least 14 days following potential COVID-19 exposure.
The updated quarantine guidance was posted the same day as updated guidance on masks.
A CDC study found that wearing two masks — a cloth mask over a surgical mask — as well as modifying a surgical mask by knotting its ear loops reduced a healthy person’s risk of catching coronavirus by more than 95%, McClatchy News reported.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday during a White House COVID-19 briefing that the new scientific evidence does not change CDC guidance on who should wear masks, however she said the agency has updated what kind of masks and mask accessories are appropriate on their website, including double masks, mask fitters and nose wires.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Do vaccinated people need to quarantine after COVID exposure? CDC offers new guidance."
