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From The Allegany County Department of Health:
As the threat from COVID-19 becomes more similar to that of other common respiratory viruses, CDC is issuing Respiratory Virus Guidance, rather than additional virus-specific guidance. This brings a unified, practical approach to addressing risk from a range of common respiratory viral illnesses.
The updated guidance: When you may have a respiratory virus...
- Stay home and away from others (including people you live with who are not sick) if you have respiratory virus symptoms that aren't better explained by another cause. These symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache, among others.*
- You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:
- Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
- You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).
- When you go back to your normal activities, take added precautions over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and testing when you will be around other people indoors. It is especially important to protect people from factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.
- Remember that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.
- If you develop a fever or you start to feel worse after you have gone back to normal activities, stay home and away from others again until, for at least 24 hours, both are true: your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Then take added precautions for the next 5 days.
Protective tools are now widely available, and rates of hospitalizations and deaths are down substantially. These factors have enabled the CDC to issue the updated Respiratory Virus Guidance that provides the public with recommendations and information about effective steps and strategies tailored to the current level of risk posed by COVID-19 and other common respiratory viral illnesses.
