CDC reduces 14-day quarantine recommendation to 7-10 days

OMAHA, Ne. — The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is changing their 14-day COVID-19 quarantine recommendation down to 7 days for those who are asymptomatic and test negative and 10 days for those who are asymptomatic without a test.

The CDC says the changes come after months of research and new findings, along with understanding that some people in quarantine are under financial hardship and need to get back to work.

The safest option however remains to quarantine for the full 14 days.

"Regardless of any of this, we all need to be wearing masks...being mindful of when we're sick, others are sick," David Brett-Major from the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Epidemiology said.

Regardless of these new recommendations, the Douglas County Health Department says the county will not be seeing any new changes to required quarantines until the current statewide Directed Health Measure is changed.

“I think the important thing to remember is that right now the 14-day quarantine is still part of the Directed Health Measure for Douglas County. That is a legally binding document and that’s what we have to go by until we get the new ones from the state," Douglas County Health Department spokesperson Phil Rooney said.

Rooney says it's likely the county could see the changes being implemented by the state by end of the week.