The following article is a press release from the Pettis County Health Center:

Given the improvement in case numbers, the Pettis County Health Center will now support the CDC guidance relating to using COVID testing to shorten the quarantine period for non-household contacts from 10 to 7 days, provided that the following provisions are followed:

1. For an individual who has a non-household contact, the person must obtain a COVID-19 test, preferably PCR, no sooner than 5 days after the last contact with the positive test.

2. The individual wishing to end quarantine early must notify the Health Center case
investigator and report the negative test to the Pettis County Health Center.
Quarantine cannot be released until at least 7 days after the last contact with the
positive case.

3. Anyone with symptoms may not be released from quarantine at 7 days.

4. The person who is released early from quarantine must continue to monitor for
symptoms for 14 days after the last contact, wear a mask, stay six feet away from
other people, avoid crowds and wash hands frequently. (per CDC guidance)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html

Quarantine is the process by which a person exposed to a disease that can be spread before the person becomes sick or can spread the disease without becoming sick is separated from other, non-exposed people to protect non-exposed people from becoming ill. A contact is defined as non-masked contact with the person who is known to be positive for 15 minutes or longer and closer than six feet.

The pattern that is currently being seen is most transmission is happening within households. Research has demonstrated that up to 66 percent of individuals who live in a household with a positive case will become positive up to as long as 14 days, which is why household contact quarantine will remain at 14 days.

For household contacts that do not separate, the quarantine period begins at the end of the 10-day isolation period for the positive case. The failure to separate has extended quarantine for many household contacts. Isolation for positive cases remains at 10 days.

For additional information, contact the Pettis County Health Center at (660) 827-1130

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

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