The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has updated its COVID-19 Isolation Guidance protocols. The update includes the CDPH’s recommendations to move away from five days of isolation and instead focus on clinical symptoms to determine when to end isolation.
The CDPH, in connection with health officials across the state, has undertaken a multi-pronged approach to mitigating COVID-19 that includes encouraging vaccination, offering and promoting testing and treatment, and promoting public health practices like mask wearing. Reduced impacts from COVID-19 – compared to prior years – have the CDPH recommending this change as a way of bringing COVID-19 treatment practices into alignment with common practices associated with other respiratory viruses.
Updated CDPH recommendations include the following:
Positive Test:
- Symptoms: Stay home if you have COVID-19 symptoms, until you have not had a fever for 24 hours without using fever reducing medication and other COVID-19 symptoms are mild and improving.
- No Symptoms: Follow below recommendactions to reduce exposure to others.
- Mask when you are around other people indoors for the 10 days* after you become sick or test positive (if no symptoms). Mask may be removed sooner than 10 days if you have two sequential negative tests at least one day apart. Day 0 is symptom onset date or positive test date.
- Avoid contact with people at higher-risk for severe COVID-19 for 10 days.*
- Seek Treatment. If you have symptoms speak with a healthcare provider as soon as you test positive. COVID-19 antiviral medicines work best if taken as soon as possible, and within 5-7 days from when symptoms start.
*The potential infectious period is 2 days before the date of symptoms began or the positive test date (if no symptoms) through Day 10. (Day 0 is the symptom onset date or positive test date).
Close Contact:
- New COVID-19 symptoms – test and mask right away.
- No symptoms – and at higher risk of severe COVID-19 infection – test within 5 days.
- No symptoms – and have contact with people who are at higher risk for severe infection – mask indoors when around such people for 10 days. Consider testing within 5 days after the last exposure date (Day 0) and before contact with higher-risk people.
Workplaces remain subject to the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Non-Emergency Regulations or in some workplaces the Cal/OSHA Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD) Standard. These regulations automatically incorporate updates issued by CDPH and remain in effect until February 3, 2025.
The new guidelines do not apply to healthcare personnel who remain subject to current CDPH and Cal/OSHA recommendations.