Plain Language for CDC’s Updated Isolation and Quarantine Guidance

On January 4, 2022, CDC released updated materials on COVID-19 isolation and quarantine for the general population. Shorter isolation (for people without symptoms and mildly ill people) and quarantine periods of five days focus on the time when people are most contagious. These five days are followed by masking for five more days. Quarantine and isolation are strategies used to prevent transmission of COVID-19 by keeping people who may be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 or been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 apart from others. Quarantine when you might have been exposed to the virus and may or may not have been infected. Isolate when you are sick or when you have been infected with the virus, even if you don’t have symptoms.