The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a few changes regarding discontinuation of transmission-based precautions and disposition of patients with COVID-19 in health care settings.
As of April 30, CDC made the following updates:
  • Updated the name of the “non-test-based strategy” to the “symptom-based strategy” for those with symptoms and the “time-based strategy” for those without symptoms.
  • Extended the duration of transmission-based precautions to at least 10 days since symptoms first appeared. This update was made based on evidence suggesting a longer duration of viral shedding and will be revised as additional evidence becomes available, according to the CDC’s website.
  • Added criteria for discontinuing transmission-based precautions for patients who have laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 but have not had any symptoms.
  • Removed specifying use of nasopharyngeal swab collection for the Test-Based Strategy and linked to the Interim Guidelines for Collecting, Handling and Testing Clinical Specimens for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
For more information on these changes, visit https://bit.ly/2VYZDtI.