Beaumont doctor talks about being cautious with quarantine after Covid diagnosis

Beaumont doctor talks Covid quarantine rules for Michigan

This week The Centers for Disease Control reduced the recommended number of days to quarantine after a Covid diagnosis from 10 to five.

FOX 2 - This week The Centers for Disease Control reduced the recommended number of days to quarantine after a Covid diagnosis from 10 to five.

"For all of this pandemic, some science has demonstrated less than a third of people are isolating when they need to," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

But the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is not on board. Officials at MDHHS say they will wait for a review of the evidence before making changes.

Some medical experts believe you can never be too cautious when it comes to Covid safety.

"With a 10-day period, that is kind of what we’ve been going by. I think if you want to be extra safe and you can afford to do so, then staying the 10 days is probably the best thing," said Dr. Asha Shajahan, Beaumont, Grosse Pointe.

But medical experts say they also see the reasoning behind the CDCs move.

"On the other hand, if you have to get back to work and you are not exhibiting symptoms, evidence shows that it is likely safe to just do the five days and to continue to (wear a) mask for the remainder of the five," Dr. Shajahan said.

"If you are not contagious and you are careful when you go out I say keep it at the five days," said Michelle Hentkowski, of Warren.

Debate over time periods for isolation days comes as Covid numbers in the state continue to rise.

"We have been, in the state of Michigan and in most of our hospitals, on the rise since Thanksgiving - which is the pattern we’re seeing with Covid, after gathering from a major holiday particularly in hospitals," Dr. Shajahan said.

Across Beaumont’s system hundreds are hospitalized with Covid.

"Hospitalization numbers across our system have been between 530 and 600 over the last several weeks," she said. "In the hospitals about 70 percent of the cases are people who are not vaccinated."

As the highly transmissible omicron variant becomes the dominant variant, medical professionals say many more are testing positive, and even those who had Covid, could become reinfected.

"The variants tend to be more infectious," said Dr. Shajahan. "Each one, like delta, are more infectious than alpha, and omincron is even more infectious. With all of that combined, there is a higher chance of people becoming re-infected."