ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) reported an additional 3,643 COVID-19 cases Monday, the second-highest daily record.
Since the pandemic began, Georgia has not seen a drop in cases for 14 days straight as the White House recommends for reopening the economy.
Many employers and employees want to know what’s the best strategy for returning to work after testing positive.
There are two types of strategies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for exiting home quarantine after testing positive, but Georgia public health officials lean towards a symptom or time-based strategy.
The symptom-based or time-based strategy recommends exiting isolation 10 days after the onset of your symptoms, or a positive test, and at least three days with no fever without the help of fever-reducing medication. If someone tests positive but never had any symptoms, the same recommendations apply.
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A test-based strategy, which recommends taking two tests within a 24-hour period that both result in negative results after completing at least a 10 day home quarantine, following three days with no symptoms.
Georgia public health officials do not recommend a test-based strategy for returning to work. The agency says it’s not helpful to repeatedly test while having no symptoms to obtain a negative test result.
“Anyone testing positive from the date of their test or the onset of their symptoms, they isolate for 10 days only and after that, they are not infectious even if they have a lingering cough as long as their symptoms are better,” said Dr. Audrey Arona, Gwinnett County’s District Health Director during a Zoom interview with 11Alive. “But, that 10-day period has to include three days without a fever without the use of fever lowering medications.”
The CDC recommends people who know they have been exposed to quarantine for 14 days.
So, in some cases, it's possible that a person known to be infected could leave isolation earlier than a person who is quarantined because of the possibility they are infected.
For the CDC guidelines for exiting quarantine for people who have tested positive, click here.