CDC Relaxes COVID-19 Guidance

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened COVID-19 guidance Aug. 12 that impacts workplace quarantine recommendations and social distancing. 

The agency is no longer recommending people stay six feet away from another person. 

They also said a person who is not up to date on their vaccines and comes into contact with someone infected with COVID-19 no longer needs to quarantine. 

Officials do, however, recommend those people wear a mask for at least 10 days and test for the virus after day five. 

Workplace Testing

“We know that COVID-19 is here to stay,” CDC epidemiologist Greta Massetti said at a news briefing. 

“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.”

The announcement comes after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its guidance on COVID-19 testing in the workplace.

In the guidance, officials outlined that testing should be treated as a “medical examination” and as such must be “job related and consistent with business necessity.”

According to the CDC’s new guidance, officials no longer recommend contact tracing and routine testing.