Dr. Anthony Fauci said the changes the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made to its isolation guidelines for Covid-19 are a good idea.
“I think that was a very prudent and good choice on the part of the CDC, which we spent a considerable amount of time discussing, namely getting people back in half the time than they would have been out, so that they can do it back to the workplace, doing things that are important to keep society running smoothly,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jim Acosta.
The CDC shortened the recommended times that people should isolate when they’ve tested positive for Covid-19 from 10 days to five days if they don’t have symptoms – and if they wear a mask around others for at least five more days.
The CDC also shortened the recommended time for people to quarantine if they are exposed to the virus to a similar five days if they are vaccinated and often to no time if they are boosted.
“With the sheer volume of new cases that we are having and that we expect to continue with Omicron, one of the things that we want to be careful of is that we don’t have so many people out,” Fauci told CNN’s Jim Acosta.
“We want to get people back to the jobs, particularly the essential jobs, to keep society running smoothly,” Fauci added.
One way to help slow the spread of Covid-19 is more testing, but tests are still hard to come by in the US, Fauci said, although the situation will get better soon.
“We don’t have enough tests at this particular point in time to get everybody uniformly, have the availability of testing – that will change considerably as we get into January,” Fauci said.
The Biden administration has promised it will make 500 million tests available in the first couple of weeks of January with 200 to 500 million tests per month in the succeeding months.
“It would be great if we had it right now, but unfortunately, we don’t,” Fauci said.
What the country does have right now is vaccines, Fauci said as he encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, including children.
“I appeal to parents, that if your child is five and over, get that child vaccinated not only for their own safety, because you see there’s a lot more infections in children, some of which result in hospitalizations. And that’s one of the things you don’t want to happen,” Fauci said. “You don’t want them to be spreading infections among themselves, and among others, So it’s really important to get those children vaccinated.”
Fauci has said vaccine mandates are a good idea, including for people who fly domestically, but don’t expect that mandate to happen any time soon.
“But we never take anything off the table. We always keep things open for consideration,” Fauci said.
Fauci said public health leaders will be watching the Covid-19 numbers closely. The number he will be particularly focused on is hospitalizations. When there are so many infections, he explained, some can be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
“What really counts is making sure people don’t get sick,” Fauci said. “So, what we were saying as we go on further and we may be get more cases but less hospitalizations, it’s important to focus on how well we’re doing about keeping people well, if they’re in the hospital taking good care of them, but trying to keep them out of the hospital by whatever means possible.”
Source: www.cnn.com