CDC relaxes COVID guidance, cuts most of isolation period
Americans with COVID or other respiratory infections need not isolate for five days before returning to work or school, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, a striking sign of changing attitudes toward the coronavirus.
People with respiratory illnesses may resume daily activities if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medications and if their symptoms are improving, agency officials said.
Acknowledging that people can be contagious even without symptoms, the CDC urged those who end isolation to limit close contact with others, wear well-fitted masks, improve indoor air quality, and practice good hygiene, like washing hands and covering coughs and sneezes, for five days.
The guidelines apply to COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, among other respiratory ailments, which should make it easier for people to comply, Dr. Mandy Cohen, the CDC’s director, told reporters Friday.
Cohen noted the sharp decreases in the numbers of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths this winter compared with those in previous years and said a vast majority of hospitalizations had occurred among Americans who did not receive the latest shots.
Vaccination also decreases the chances of long COVID, she said.
The CDC last changed its policy on isolation for those with COVID during the omicron wave two years ago, when record infections ground the nation to a halt. The isolation period was cut to five days from 10.
The agency is unifying the recommendation for respiratory illnesses because the symptoms are often hard to tell apart, the viruses spread in much the same way, and they can be prevented with similar strategies, said Dr. Brendan Jackson, who leads the agency’s respiratory virus response team.
NY driveway shooting:
A man who fatally shot a 20-year-old woman after the SUV she was riding in mistakenly drove into his rural driveway in upstate New York was sentenced Friday to more than 25 years to life in prison.
Kevin Monahan, 66, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death last April of Kaylin Gillis. She was riding in a caravan of two cars and a motorcycle that was trying to leave after pulling into Monahan’s long, winding driveway while looking for a party at another house in the town of Hebron.
Judge Adam Michelini scolded Monahan for showing no remorse.
“You murdered Kaylin Gillis. You shot at a car full of people and you didn’t care what would happen and you repeatedly lied about it. You deserve to spend the maximum time in prison allowable under the law,” the judge said.
Texas wildfires: Wildfires have destroyed as many as 500 structures in the Texas Panhandle, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday, describing how the largest blaze in state history scorched everything in its path, leaving ashes in its wake.
Texas officials warned that the threat is not yet over. Higher temperatures and stronger winds forecast for Saturday elevated fears that fires in the Panhandle could spread beyond the more than 1,700 square miles already scorched by fast-moving flames.
The largest blaze, the Smokehouse Creek fire, which began Monday, has killed at least two people and left a charred landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle and burned-out homes. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, although strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm weather fed the flames.
Federal funding: President Joe Biden signed a shortterm spending measure Friday that keeps one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22 — officially staving off a partial government shutdown that would have started Sunday.
The measure gives lawmakers some more time to draft and pass spending measures to keep the federal government operating for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Washington has been running on a series of shortterm measures because Congress, as it routinely does, failed to enact full-year spending bills on time.
Next week, the House and Senate are expected to take up a package of six spending bills and get them to the president before March 8. Lawmakers would then work to fund the rest of the government by the new March 22 deadline.
A New Jersey businessman pleaded guilty Friday to trying to bribe U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, admitting that he gave the senator’s wife a car to influence him and agreeing to a plea deal that calls for him to testify in the corruption case against the powerful Democrat.
Jose Uribe entered the plea in Manhattan federal court to seven charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery from 2018 to 2023, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
Uribe told Judge Sidney H. Stein that he conspired with several people, including Nadine Menendez, to provide a Mercedes-Benz to her in return for her husband “using his power and influence as a United States senator to get a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations related to one of my associates.”
According to a plea agreement, Uribe could face up to 95 years in prison, although he could win leniency by cooperating and testifying against the other defendants, which he’s agreed to do. He also agreed to forfeit $246,000, representing proceeds traceable to his crimes.
Uribe was among three businessmen charged in the corruption case against Menendez and his wife, which was revealed last fall. Authorities say the couple accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and the car in exchange for his help and influence over foreign affairs.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty.