CDC expected to change COVID guidance this spring: Washington Post

COVID guidelines changing this spring

There's new advice from the CDC when it comes to treating COVID in the future. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that guidelines for isolating when you have COVID may be changing in April. FOX 5's Bob Barnard reports from Vienna.

WASHINGTON - Get ready for new advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it comes to treating COVID-19 in the future.

According to a Washington Post report, the guidelines for isolating when you have COVID may be changing come April.

It’s expected that the CDC will soon advise that if you test positive for COVID, you only need to continue isolating for 24 hours after being fever-free, as long as your symptoms are abating, rather than for five days.

"Finally, the CDC is acknowledging what we already know: that their advice on COVID isolation — to isolate for five days — is something that people are simply not doing and also, we're at a different time now in the COVID landscape than we were in December 2021 when, if you remember, omicron had hit, infections were soaring, hospitalizations were soaring and a lot of people were sick and didn’t have the immunity," said Lena Sun, The Washington Post reporter who broke the story.

"Now just about everybody we know has been vaccinated or infected more than once or both so the level of immunity in the general population is much higher," she continued.

Health experts who spoke with FOX 5 say we still need to be careful with COVID for those with vulnerable immune systems but agree it's time to make the change.

"In the beginning, COVID was so deadly because it was such a novel virus that if our bodies don’t have that same level of protection we saw the devastating consequences of what happened. We are not there anymore," neuro-immunologist Dr. Sharon Stoll said.

Many DMV residents are glad to be taking another step toward leaving the pandemic in the past.

"I kind of agree with it because I think COVID turned into just the flu you know. I mean maybe a COVID-version but I think it’s just like the flu," one person told FOX 5.

"I think we all have in our heads now that COVID is a big thing and to me, it’s if you’re feeling feverish, if you’re feeling bad regardless of if it’s COVID, if it’s the flu, if it’s anything, stay home," said another.

Right now, the CDC tells FOX 5 that "there are no updates to COVID guidelines to announce at this time. We will continue to make decisions based on the best evidence and science to keep communities healthy and safe."

But it seems there’s a chance we’ll be springing forward soon with fewer restrictions.