COVID-19: Health officials expand definition of 'close contact'
On Wednesday, the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) expanded its definition of 'close contact' to include briefer but repeated encounters with someone who has COVID-19.
Previously, the CDC defined 'close contact' as a continuous 15 minutes within two metres of someone who has tested positive for the virus. That has now changed to include shorter but repeated contacts with an individual, adding up to 15 minutes over 24 hours.
Anyone who has been in close contact with a COVID-19 patient is advised to quarantine for two weeks.
File photo: Getty Images.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert, said the change may prompt health officials to perform contact tracing in incidents that were previously considered too brief.
The expanded definition is the result of a CDC study involving a 20-year-old correctional officer in Vermont diagnosed with COVID-19 in August. Despite wearing a mask and goggles, the officer had several brief encounters with prisoners who were not wearing them, and they later tested positive for COVID-19.
A review of video footage found the guard's short interactions added up to 17 minutes during an eight-hour shift.
"The correctional officer reported no other known close contact exposures to persons with COVID-19 outside work and no travel outside Vermont during the 14 days preceding illness onset," the CDC says in the report.
"COVID-19 cumulative incidence in his county of residence and where the correctional facility is located was relatively low at the time of the investigation (20 cases per 100,000 persons), suggesting that his most likely exposures occurred in the correctional facility through multiple brief encounters (not initially considered to meet VDH’s definition of close contact exposure) with [individuals] who later received a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result."
In a statement, per the Associated Press, the CDC officials said the case once more highlights the importance of wearing masks to lessen the risk of transmitting COVID-19.
