CDC No Longer Recommends Post-Travel Quarantine

On August 21, 2020, the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) revised its COVID-19 journey tips, eradicating the blanket 14-day quarantine advice for vacationers coming back from all worldwide locations. Whereas the revised tips warning that returning vacationers might pose a threat for as much as 14 days in the event that they had been uncovered to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the CDC recommends that people take the next precautions after coming back from journey, whatever the journey vacation spot:

When round others, keep not less than 6 toes (about 2 arms’ size) from different people who find themselves not out of your family. You will need to do that in all places, each indoors and outdoor.

Put on a masks to maintain your nostril and mouth lined if you find yourself exterior of your own home.

Wash your palms usually or use hand sanitizer (with not less than 60% alcohol).

Watch your well being and search for signs of COVID-19. Take your temperature in the event you really feel sick.

In impact, the CDC is exchanging its broad steerage relevant to all worldwide journey for extra fact-specific steerage, noting that further precautions could also be prudent if journey concerned “increased threat actions.” Particularly, if a person traveled to an space “experiencing excessive ranges of COVID-19 unfold,” was on a cruise ship or river boat, or engaged in actions reminiscent of giant social gatherings or attending a big occasion, the CDC recommends that the person “[s]tay house as a lot as doable” and take into account getting examined for COVID-19. The CDC likewise up to date its Journey: Steadily Requested Questions and Solutions steerage, which now states that “[m]ost vacationers can return to work [after returning from international travel] however ought to take precautions” and that “[s]ome vacationers might have increased threat of publicity and may keep house for 14 days.”

This up to date steerage displays an easing from the earlier bright-line suggestion that people quarantine for 14 days following return from worldwide journey. Equally, the CDC doesn’t suggest or require any blanket quarantine primarily based on home journey, however relatively the CDC recommends vacationers take into account staying house for 14 days after any journey involving increased threat actions, whatever the vacation spot. Employers might want to reassess their travel-related insurance policies in mild of the revised steerage, together with whether or not to require staff to stay house for 14 days upon return from enterprise or private journey. An alternative choice is to permit vacationers to return to work upon arrival except they engaged in increased threat actions or had shut contact with a identified or presumed COVID-19 case throughout their journey. Regardless, employers might wish to do not forget that any worker who’s experiencing signs, together with after coming back from journey, ought to keep house and stay out of the office till the worker meets the CDC’s standards to discontinue house isolation.