Several counties in California are now advising people not to bother self-quarantining at home after COVID-19 exposure unless they get symptoms. This seems wildly irresponsible to me. I understand not wanting to use valuable health system resources on people who are unlikely to have the virus, but home self-quarantine does not cost the health system anything now, and it is likely to save the health system a lot of cases later. Right?
This seems in particular very much at odds with Italy’s striking decision to lock down the entire country, including whole regions with no known exposures.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like they’re no longer contact tracing.
“Once you get a certain number of cases, it’s hard to continue to contact-trace back the way you tried originally,” Beilenson said, “so we move to mitigation, which is basically trying to mitigate the risk to those who are most at risk: the elderly and those with chronic underlying conditions.”
I would interpret this to mean they’re not tracking down people to recommend that they, specifically, self-isolate, but it’s not a blanket recommendation not to self-isolate. They also don’t seem to recommending that, but it’s not clear they ever did.
I think that would have been a very reasonable thing, but no, it is a blanket recommendation that self-quarantine for known exposure is not required (at least for Sacramento County):
“With the shift from containment to mitigation, it is no longer necessary for someone who has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days. This applies to the general public, as well as health care workers and first responders. However, if they develop respiratory symptoms, they should stay home in order to protect those who are well. ”
Several counties in California are now advising people not to bother self-quarantining at home after COVID-19 exposure unless they get symptoms. This seems wildly irresponsible to me. I understand not wanting to use valuable health system resources on people who are unlikely to have the virus, but home self-quarantine does not cost the health system anything now, and it is likely to save the health system a lot of cases later. Right?
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article241047391.html
This seems in particular very much at odds with Italy’s striking decision to lock down the entire country, including whole regions with no known exposures.
Any thoughts?
Reading between the lines, it sounds like they’re no longer contact tracing.
I would interpret this to mean they’re not tracking down people to recommend that they, specifically, self-isolate, but it’s not a blanket recommendation not to self-isolate. They also don’t seem to recommending that, but it’s not clear they ever did.
I think that would have been a very reasonable thing, but no, it is a blanket recommendation that self-quarantine for known exposure is not required (at least for Sacramento County):
https://www.saccounty.net/news/latest-news/Pages/County-Announces-New-Mitigation-Efforts-COVID-19.aspx
“With the shift from containment to mitigation, it is no longer necessary for someone who has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days. This applies to the general public, as well as health care workers and first responders. However, if they develop respiratory symptoms, they should stay home in order to protect those who are well. ”