New CDC Guidance Expected: COVID Patients Don’t Need To Be Retested
With the U.S. coronavirus system again under strain, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release guidelines saying that coronavirus patients don't need to be tested again -- after symptoms clear -- in order to prove they are no longer contagious.
The Hill:
Trump Health Officials To Recommend Against Retesting COVID-19 Patients
Top Trump administration officials are preparing guidance that will recommend people who test positive for COVID-19 do not need to get retested to prove they no longer have the disease. The move, previewed in a call with reporters by the administration's testing coordinator Brett Giroir, comes as the U.S. testing system faces severe strains and a national backlog of results. (Weixel, 7/16)
Politico:
CDC To Recommend Against Retesting Coronavirus Patients Before They End Isolation
“This is a remnant of very early on when we had cruise ships and people in quarantine that said the first way to get out of quarantine was to have two negative tests 24 hours apart,” HHS testing czar Brett Giroir told reporters Thursday. “That is no longer needed, and it is medically unnecessary.” He said that most patients can emerge from isolation after three days without symptoms, as long as it has been at least 10 days since their symptoms began. (Lim, 7/16)
In other news about testing —
Reuters:
Australian Researchers Invent 20-Minute Coronavirus Blood Test
Researchers in Australia have devised a test that can determine novel coronavirus infection in about 20 minutes using blood samples in what they say is a world-first breakthrough. The researchers at Monash University said their test can determine if someone is currently infected and if they have been infected in the past. (7/17)
