CDC shortens 5-day COVID isolation, updates guidance on masks and testing in new 2024 recommendations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it would wind down much of its remaining guidance specifically targeted at COVID-19, including an official end to a pandemic-era plea for Americans to stay home for five days after testing positive.

The agency cited improvements in the rates of hospitalizations and deaths inflicted by the virus this past season for the change.

"COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses," the agency said Friday in a report justifying its decision.