Dear Pharmacists.
This information will be helpful for you to know more about the recent changes in COVID-19 testing by CDC.
Pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic people can unwittingly spread COVID-19, which is why public health experts have urged widespread testing for everyone.
The new guidelines state that pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic people “do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.” This applies even to people who have been in close contact with someone infected with COVID-19 — which the agency defines as within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes — but are not showing symptoms, and those “in a high COVID-19 transmission area and have attended a public or private gathering of more than 10 people (without widespread mask wearing or physical distancing).”
Yet further down in the guidelines, the agency still stresses that “it is important to realize that you can be infected and spread the virus but feel well and have no symptoms.”
For more information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/testing-overview.html
