New guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded who should be considered a close contact of someone who tests positive for COVID-19.
Under the old guidelines, the definition of a close contact was someone who "was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated."
The changein guidance, announced in a Wednesday CDC statement, is slight but suggests that far more people should be tested based on contact tracing.
According to the new CDC guidelines, a close contact is someone who spends 15 minutes or more with someone over the course of 24 hours. Previously, the guidance was restricted to 15 consecutive minutes. The CDC now advises anyone who had brief encounters with someone over the course of 24 hours that equal roughly 15 minutes to quarantine for two weeks.
The update follows results released Tuesday from a study involving a correctional facility employee in Vermont who was diagnosed with COVID-19 despite never having a 15-minute encounter with anyone who tested positive. Instead, "during his 8-hour shift on July 28, the correctional officer was within 6 feet of an infectious [incarcerated or detained person] an estimated 22 times while the cell door was open, for an estimated 17 total minutes of cumulative exposure," according to the study.
The study highlighted the importance of wearing masks — even though the employee wore a mask at all times, "during several encounters in a cell doorway or in the recreation room, IDPs did not wear masks."......snip~
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...-close-contact
Imagine that!