Column by Dr. Richard Sternberg

New COVID Recommendations from CDC

Vaccines and infection induced immunity and the availability of effective treatment and prevention methods have decreased the risk of symptomatic COVID infection, hospitalizations, and deaths. Therefore, On August 11 the Center for Disease Control issued a new set of guidelines for minimizing the impact of COVID on people, communities, and health care providers. This takes into account the psychological and economic effects of the various actions. It allows considerably more freedom than the previous guidelines.

Below is a summarization of the recommendations but I strongly recommend reviewing the original article in MMWR, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review, which is published weekly by the CDC, online. The August 11, 2020 edition has the article. You can go to www.cdc.gov/mmwr to find it. The article besides containing the information in more detail contains a table that lists actions to minimize impact based on effects on different persons, communities, and health care system and a figure which lists recommendation for isolation, masking, testing, and other precautions for people who are ill with COVID symptoms and/or have tested positive. I think the figure and article may be easier to understand then in narrative form.