The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clarifies that their quarantine guidance does not guarantee anyone's immunity to Covid-19.
The agency stressed that its latest quarantine guidance does not mean people who are infected with the coronavirus have immunity to reinfection in the following three months. Their statement follows contradicting reports suggesting that CDC's quarantine guidance says otherwise.
There were reports on Friday that said the CDC guidelines on quarantining hint that those who contracted the virus will no longer experience reinfection for at least three months afterward.
According to the quarantine guidance, people in close contact with another infected person should quarantine, “excluding people who have had COVID-19 within the past 3 months.” It adds that “people who have tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to 3 months as long as they do not develop symptoms again.”
Immunity
The guidance is based “on studies that found that, after three months, there was no evidence of people getting re-infected after recovering,” according to an NBC News report.
However, the CDC reiterated in a statement that the coronavirus guidance does not indicate that someone who was previously infected with the coronavirus is immune to the disease for the following three months.
“Contrary to media reporting today, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection,” the CDC said in a statement.
The agency “simply suggests” that someone who undergoes retesting in the following three months after getting infected is not necessary unless that person manifests symptoms that must not be associated with another illness.
A CDC official said that someone who contracted the virus can still test positive again for the next three months after diagnosis but not be harmful to others.
Data showed that the amount of virus that can infect other people has decreased significantly after people manifest symptoms, according to CDC.
Moreover, most patients are no longer infectious 10 days after their symptoms start to manifest and 20 days for people with severe illness or those considered immunocompromised, the CDC noted.
Reinfection
Global health authorities stressed that it is uncertain how long someone who has been infected with Covid-19 and recovered might get protection from reinfection. However, some degree of immune response has been noted.
According to World Health Organization officials, studies show that immunity in patients who recovered from Covid-19 may disappear after a few months. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, noted that while scientists are not yet certain, patients “do mount some level of an immune response.”
“What we don’t know is how strong that protection is and for how long that protection will last,” she said at a news conference at the organization’s Geneva headquarters. “So there are a number of studies under way that are trying to answer these questions.”
