Implications of Shortened Quarantine Among Household Contacts of Index Patients with Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection — Tennessee and Wisconsin, April–September 2020

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Personal Author:
  Rolfes, Melissa A. ; Grijalva, Carlos G. ; Zhu, Yuwei ; McLean, Huong Q. ; Hanson, Kayla E. ; Belongia, Edward A. ; Halasa, Natasha B. ; Kim, Ahra ; Meece, Jennifer ; Reed, Carrie ; Talbot, H. Keipp ; Fry, Alicia M.
• Description:
  To prevent further Transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that causes coronaVirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), CDC currently recommends that persons who have been in close contact with someone with SARS-CoV-2 infection should quarantine (stay away from other persons) for 14 days after the last known contact.* However, quarantine might be difficult to maintain for a prolonged period. A shorter quarantine might improve compliance, and CDC recommends two options to reduce the duration of quarantine for close contacts without symptoms, based on local circumstances and availability of tTesting: 1) quarantine can end on day 10 without a test or 2) quarantine can end on day 7 after receiving a negative test result.| However, shorter quarantine might permit ongoing disease Transmission from persons who develop symptoms or become infectious near the end of the recommended 14-day period. Interim data from an ongoing study of household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 were analyzed to understand the proportion of household contacts that had detectable Virus after a shortened quarantine period. Persons who were household contacts of index patients completed a daily symptom diary and self-collected respiratory specimens for 14 days. Specimens were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Among 185 household contacts enrolled, 109 (59%) had detectable SARS-CoV-2 at any time; 76% (83/109) of test results were positive within 7 days, and 86% (94 of 109) were positive within 10 days after the index patient's illness onset date. Among household contacts who received negative SARS-CoV-2 test results and were asymptomatic through day 7, there was an 81% chance (95% confidence interval [CI] = 67%-90%) of remaining asymptomatic and receiving negative RT-PCR test results through day 14; this increased to 93% (95% CI = 78%-98%) for household members who were asymptomatic with negative RT-PCR test results through day 10. Although SARS-CoV-2 quarantine periods shorter than 14 days might be easier to adhere to, there is a potential for onward Transmission from household contacts released before day 14.
• Subjects:
  Contact Tracing COVID-19 Family Characteristics Humans Quarantine Time Factors
• Source:
  MMWR Morbidity Mortal Weekly Rep. 69(51-52):1633-1637
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• DOI:
  http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm695152a1
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Pubmed ID:
  33382676
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9191899
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Tennessee ; Wisconsin
• Pages in Document:
  5 pdf pages
• Volume:
  69
• Issue:
  51
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e804443a0cb4bdfc8d0ea499a91b1bd152d077b3cbd7d459d73ec66ebeba6f15cb049774ae8a2d36c91a24c0f25b4216ea2f2789c3ec512a8fde3a73cdc8b2bc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/118536/cdc_118536_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 146.96 KB ]