County revises quarantine options

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The Perry County Department of Public Health recently make a revision to the way it handles quarantining of individuals exposed to COVID-19.
House said the county is permanently adopting a 10-day option, which was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control in late December 2020.
This was shifted down from a 14-day quarantine for much of 2020.
The state’s Department of Health and Senior Services accepted those quarantine options since December when it was released by the CDC, according to House. It was up to each local public health agency) to decide what they wanted to do on a local level. At that time, DHSS made the recommendation to LPHAs to consider number of cases and community spread before going to those options.
“The recent decision to go to these options was based on the fact that when looking at the seven-day test out option, the risk of someone becoming contagious after a negative test is a similar risk to someone who is fully vaccinated becoming contagious. Fully vaccinated individuals are not required to quarantine, only take additional precautions such as monitoring for symptoms and wearing a mask for the 14 days. We don’t want to keep people in quarantine longer than we need to so if the risk is the same, we think these additional options are ‘OK’ to follow.”
There is a now a seven-day test out option.
For those seeking this route, they must get a test on day five or later. With a negative result, the individual only has to quarantine a total of seven days.
“The only stipulation is that it cannot be an at home test,” House said.

The county only had the 10-day option in place prior to last Friday.
A 14-day quarantine is still an option as well.
“With the 10-day quarantine, individuals are asked to wear a mask, monitor for symptoms as well as social distance,”
It’s recommended that individuals go with the two-week quarantine if the 10-day option cannot be adhered to, according to House.
Regardless of case numbers, the 10- and seven-day options will be available moving forward.
“This is open to all close contacts in Perry County,” House said, adding it applies to students as well. The quarantine options apply to “anyone who is a close contact,” according to House.
“There are some ages where that’s not possible,” House said.
UPDATE
The reported number of active cases of COVID-19 in Perry County was 96 as of Sunday, Aug. 29, with a seven-day rolling average of 12.1. This is up eight cases from 88 on Aug. 23 though the rolling average decreased slightly from last week’s 12.8.