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DESPITE NEW CDC GUIDANCE
Muña: No changes to quarantine rules
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Posted on Feb 12 2021
Despite a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for fully vaccinated individuals, the CNMI won’t be implementing it any time soon, according to Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muña.
The new CDC guidance states that fully vaccinated individuals may be allowed to skip quarantine even if exposed to COVID-19 positive individuals but Muña said the CNMI’s COVID-19 protocols won’t change.
The new CDC guidance says fully vaccinated persons will no longer be required to quarantine following exposure to someone with COVID-19. The guidance does not refer to travel and only focuses on those who may be exposed to positive cases. As such, all arriving passengers in the CNMI who claim to have already been vaccinated will still have to go through first- and fifth-day testing and will not be released until they test negative.
The COVID-19 vaccine is a two-shot regimen, which means it will require two shots to be administered. According to the CDC definition, a fully vaccinated individual is one who has had both shots, with at least two weeks having passed since the second shot. This is because it takes two weeks to build full immunity after the second dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.
Additionally, CDC said that persons in the community, or outpatient setting, who have had a known COVID-19 exposure should not seek vaccination until their quarantine period (two weeks) has ended to avoid potentially exposing health care personnel and other persons to COVID-19 during the vaccination visit.
CDC also said that people who do meet the criteria to skip out on quarantine still have to take precautionary measures such as washing of hands, waiting at a distance, and wearing a mask.
“Fully vaccinated persons who do not quarantine should still watch for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days following an exposure. If they experience symptoms, they should be clinically evaluated for COVID-19, including SARS-CoV-2 testing, if indicated,” said CDC.
