For most of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the guidance for quarantine has been the same. Most people were told to quarantine for 14 days after feeling symptoms or testing positive for the virus.

But this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed their guidance on that.

The new guidance from the CDC for returning to work after a positive test includes the following:

- At least 10 days have passed since first symptoms
- At least 24 hours have passed since their last fever without the use of fever-reducing medicine
- Symptoms need to show improvement

With some test results taking up to 20 days to be returned, a person could actually be back to work before they even know whether or not they had the virus. Based on these new guidelines, if a person doesn't take a test until 2 days after their symptoms present, and they feel fine and have no fever 2 days after that, they could return to work within 6 days, even if they didn't get their results back.

This could be a major change for employers, schools, and athletics. It may only cut a few days off from the previous guidelines, but it creates a clearer path for those still waiting on test results to return to work or school.

 

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