CDC could introduce new testing mandates for quarantining Covid patients, Fauci suggests

The White House medical advisor has suggested that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could reconfigure its isolation guidance for individuals who test positive for Covid-19 to include testing after five days.

“You're right, there has been some concern about why we don't ask people at that five-day period to get tested. That is something that is now under consideration,”  Anthony Fauci said on ABC News.

Last week, the quarantine requirements were cut from 10 days to five days for people who test positive but remain asymptomatic.

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Only 62 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and the nation’s medical infrastructure is severely strained two years into the pandemic.

“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, and I think we're going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the CDC,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert noted.

In a separate appearance on CNN,he asserted that “the likelihood of transmissibility is considerably lower in that second half of a 10-day period… and for that reason, the CDC made the judgment that it would be relatively low-risk to get people out.”

This is while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is fast spreading across the United States and the rest of the world.

Air travelers to US set to face tougher COVID-19 testing

The US is moving to require that all air travelers entering the country show a negative COVID-19 test performed within one day of departure in response to concerns about a new coronavirus variant.

Omicron was first detected in South Africa last month and soon spread across many countries including in America and Europe.

So far, more than 824 thousand people have dies in the US die to catching Covid with nearly 55 million cases reported.

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