Katharina Buczek
In December of 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shortened the recommended COVID-19 isolation period to just five days.
The move was made following new data, which suggested that the virus is most infectious during the two to three days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.
In turn, five days was deemed a long enough quarantine period to help curb the spread.
However, a new collaborative study conducted by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital has found otherwise.
The research, which has since been published in JAMA Network Open, found that some individuals are still able to transmit COVID-19 after a five-day isolation period.
The supporting data was collected by performing viral cultures and rapid antigen tests (RATs) on forty COVID-19 infected patients residing in the Boston area.
These patients were not deemed high-risk for severe symptoms, and all had received appropriate doses of respective COVID-19 and booster shots.
Each day following confirmed infection, each patient was instructed to fill out symptom logs.
They also performed COVID-19 self-tests daily using a RAT test beginning on the sixth day following infection and subsequently submitted culture swabs directly to the researchers.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
