New CDC isolation guidelines raise concerns among health experts

More than 200,000 people are testing positive for COVID-19 in the U.S. each day. Until this week, a positive test meant you should stay home for 10 days to avoid infecting others. Now, those who don't have symptoms after five days can go back to their regular activities, as long as they wear a mask, according to updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The change in guidance released Monday was "motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness," according to the CDC.

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the change was also motivated by economic and societal concerns. "With a really large anticipated number of cases [from omicron], we also want to make sure we can keep the critical functions of society open and operating," she told NPR Tuesday. "We can't take science in a vacuum. We have to put science in the context of how it can be implemented in a functional society."

Public health experts say a shorter isolation period may be reasonable at this point in the pandemic – but say the agency's new guidance is problematic because it relies on people's self-judgement to assess their transmission risk – and could lead to more spread and more COVID-19 cases if people aren't careful.