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COLUMBUS (WJW) – The Ohio Department of Health is aligning its COVID-19 quarantine and isolation guidelines with those recently set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC recently cut isolation restrictions for Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.

Now, the Ohio Department of Health is following suit.

“Evidence shows that the majority of COVID-19 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to symptom onset, and in the 2-3 days after symptoms begin,” explained Dr. Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health. “The CDC’s updated quarantine and isolation guidance takes the latest science and evidence into consideration, with a focus on testing, masking and symptom monitoring – similar to Ohio’s reduced quarantine guidelines in the state’s ‘mask to stay’ and ‘test to play’ guidance.”  

Anyone who tests positive for COVID must quarantine for five days, and if symptoms are improving, the health department said the person can come out of quarantine on the sixth day if they wear a mask in public for the next five days.

In the last 24 hours, 19,774 cases, 484 hospitalizations, 43 intensive care unit admissions, and zero deaths were reported to the state health department.

Roughly 55% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID, according to the Ohio Department of Health.