New CDC guidance encourages more testing to limit school quarantines

At a White House briefing on Friday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said schools should limit quarantines by requiring testing for unvaccinated close contacts of a confirmed COVID-19 case.

It's a practice known as "test to stay."

"In the 'test to stay' protocol, there's increased testing of close contacts after a COVID-19 exposure, and that testing needs to be at least twice in the seven-day period after exposure," Walensky explained. "If exposed children meet a certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay in school instead of quarantining at home."

The announcement elevates and updates existing guidance that some schools around the country have already been following. It could save, collectively, tens of millions of school days for students – assuming the typical 10- or 14-day quarantine – as the omicron variant spreads in the United States.