CDC Revises COVID-19 Quarantine Guidelines

Recommended isolation time shortened to 10 days if no symptoms are present. NBC's Jay Gray reports.

(NBC News) — The frantic rush to save lives from COVID-19 is intensifying in hospitals across the country.

The latest White house coronavirus task force report distributed to states and obtained by NBC News warns: “The covid risk to all Americans is at a historic high… We are in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high covid baseline and limited hospital capacity.”

Since November 1st the total number of hospitalized COVID patients in the U.S. has doubled and is nearing 100,000.

Vaccinations using a medicine created by Pfizer begin next week in the United Kingdom. The same vaccine, and a second manufactured by Moderna, are awaiting FDA emergency approval in the U.S., expected in the next couple of weeks.

Still, following approval widespread inoculations will take months.

In the interim, with infections growing, the Centers for Disease Control has released new guidelines for quarantines.

Fourteen days is still best, but the agency says a 10 day isolation is okay if no symptoms are present, or seven days with no symptoms and a negative test.

Read more here.