The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday announced that it has shortened the recommended amount of time that a person should isolate after testing positive for COVID-19 from 10 days to five days.

The shorter isolation will be allowed if after five days a person does not have symptoms, and if they wear a mask when they are around other people for the following five days.

"Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to five days, if asymptomatic, followed by five days of wearing a mask when around others," the CDC said in a statement.

The CDC has also said that a person who has received their booster shot does not need to quarantine following exposure but that they do need to wear a mask for 10 days after.

The quarantine recommendation has been put in place to help prevent a person who has been infected with COVID-19 from possibly transmitting it to other people.

"The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after. Therefore, people who test positive should isolate for five days and, if asymptomatic at that time, they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for five days to minimize the risk of infecting others," the CDC said.

RELATED STORIES