Amna Nawaz:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending a shorter isolation period for anyone testing positive for COVID-19, from 10 days down to five, if asymptomatic, followed by five days of mask-wearing around others.
Now, the new guidance comes as the U.S. is averaging more than 230,000 new cases per day.
Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis is the director of health at the City of St. Louis' Department of Health. And she joins me now.
Dr. Davis, welcome to the "NewsHour." Thanks for making the time.
It's a big change in guidance. We want to make sure it's clear to people. So, they say, if you test positive and have no symptoms, isolate for five days, wear a mask for five days.
What do you do if you test positive and you have symptoms of some kind? What should you do then?
Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, Director of Health, St. Louis: So, excellent question, Amna.
And what we believe is happening here is that the guidance has been made clear to differentiate between the asymptomatic, symptomatic, but you have also seen them give this guidance around vaccination status.
And for that population of people, what we believe is that second five-day period does not guarantee that your local health department will clear you from isolation, because you are still symptomatic, right? So you are allowed to leave after day five asymptomatic with a mask. That is not the case if you are still symptomatic.
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