Fauci Indicates CDC May Recommend Negative Covid Test to End Quarantine, Amid ‘Pushback’ Against New 5-Day Isolation Guidance

Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated on Sunday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering recommending a negative test requirement for asymptomatic individuals to exit isolation after five days, following “pushback” the CDC has faced after releasing its updated guidance.

Under the Dec. 27 guidance, the CDC reduced its isolation recommendation from 10 days to five days for people who tested positive for Covid but are asymptomatic, as well as those whose symptoms are resolving (no fever for at least 24 hours). The guidance also states the individual should wear a mask for the following five days after leaving isolation.

The CDC also shortened its quarantine recommendation for individuals exposed to Covid, recommending that those who are unvaccinated or are more than six months past their second mRNA shot (or two months post-J&J vaccine) and not boosted “quarantine for 5 days followed by strict mask use for an additional 5 days.”

Per the CDC, individuals who have received their booster do not need to quarantine after an exposure but should wear a mask for 10 days.

“There has been some concern about why we don’t ask people at that five-day period to get tested,” Fauci said on ABC’s This Week. “That is something that is now under consideration. The CDC is very well aware that there has been some pushback about that.”

“Looking at it again, there may be an option in that, that testing could be a part of that,” he added. “And I think we’re going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the CDC.”

Fauci also noted that “it is much more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases.”

Fauci expressed optimism that the recent spike in Covid cases has not created a proportional spike in hospitalizations but added that “we don’t want to get complacent at all, and you don’t want to jump to a positive conclusion,” particularly since “hospitalizations are often late, lagging indicators.”

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky defended not including a testing requirement earlier this week, saying that PCR tests can show a positive result for up to 12 weeks after infection, despite a person no longer being contagious, and that the CDC is unsure whether at-home antigen tests “give a good indication of transmissibility at this stage of infection.”

“We know that after five days people are much less likely to transmit the virus and that masking further reduces that risk,” Walensky said on Wednesday. “This science, as well as what we know about the protection provided by masking, vaccination and booster doses, and about our test performance, were all part of what informed our updated recommendations.”

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