Federal regulators on Thursday relaxed restrictions that require healthcare professionals to miss a total of 10 days of work if they test positive for a drug or alcohol test.
Concerned that a new COVID-19 outbreak could overwhelm already understaffed U.S. hospitals, federal officials on Thursday relaxed restrictions requiring healthcare employees to miss 10 days of work if they test positive for the virus.
Those employees will now be permitted to return to work after seven days if their tests are negative, and they are not experiencing any symptoms.
According to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, isolation time can be reduced to five days or even less in cases of acute personnel shortages.
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As the health care community prepares for an anticipated surge of patients due to omicron, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updates its recommendations to reflect the latest information on infection and exposure in the context of vaccination and booster doses, according to Director Rochelle Walensky in a statement.
“Our goal is to ensure the safety of healthcare workers and patients, as well as to address and prevent unnecessary stress on our healthcare institutions,” she continued. “
To keep infected people away from uninfected people and to prevent the virus from spreading further, isolation is used in some situations.
It has been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control that for calculating the 10-day isolation period, the first day should be taken as the first full day after symptoms first appeared or after a positive test result.
If a person develops symptoms after receiving a positive COVID-19 test, the quarantine period must be restarted, with the first day of symptoms counting as the first day of the new isolation period.