Nodal US health agency Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to shorten the recommended length of quarantine after exposure to someone who is positive for COVID-19, as the nation prepares for possible vaccine administration.
According to a senior administration official who spoke to news agency AP, the new guidelines, which are set to be released as soon, will allow people who have come in contact to someone infected with the virus to resume normal activity after 10 days, or 7 days if they receive a negative test result. That's down from the 14-day period recommended since the onset of the pandemic.
The policy change has been discussed for some time, as scientists have studied the incubation period for the virus. It was discussed Tuesday at a White House coronavirus task force meeting.
At the same time, an influential scientific panel on Tuesday was set to tackle one of the most pressing questions in the US coronavirus outbreak: Who should be at the front of the line when the first vaccine shots become available? There could soon be a vote on a proposal that would give priority to health care workers and nursing home patients. The two groups together represent around 23 million Americans out of a population of about 330 million.
Later this month, the Food and Drug Administration will consider approval of two vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Current estimates project that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. And each product requires two doses. As a result, the shots will be rationed in the early stages.
The panel will meet again at some point to decide who should be next in line. Among the possibilities: teachers, police, firefighters and workers in other essential fields such as food production and transportation; the elderly; and people with underlying medical conditions. Experts say the vaccine will probably not become widely available in the US until the spring.
The outbreak in the US has killed nearly 270,000 people and caused more than 13.5 million confirmed infections, with deaths, hospitalizations and cases rocketing in recent weeks.
-Inputs from agencies
