The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased COVID-19 exposure and quarantine guidelines Thursday, saying that between population-level immunity and available treatments, the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 is now extremely low in the United States.
The new approach is meant to reduce strain on hospitals while also reducing barriers to everyday activity, and comes as data indicates Americans are fed up with mitigation practices, but as COVID-19 hospitalizations are slowly ticking upward.
“This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives,” said Greta Massetti, chief of the CDC Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch.
