ATLANTA — Metro Atlanta leaders are awaiting new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"What we anticipate seeing is a change in guidance for the isolation for people who've tested positive for COVID-19," said Jodie Guest, a professor and senior vice chair at Emory University's Rollins School of Health Department of Epidemiology. "This is a way to diminish the amount of time that we're staying home."
The Washington Post said three agency officials told them "people would no longer need to stay home if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medication and their symptoms are mild and improving."
That could shorten the current recommendation of five days in isolation after testing positive.
"This is actually very in line with what we already say for flu and other respiratory viruses," Guest told 11Alive. "COVID-19 is still more deadly than these other forms of respiratory illnesses... so we still need to take this illness extremely seriously, even (if there's a) change in guidelines."
Guest said she hopes this decision will encourage more people to take COVID-19 tests.
"People were concerned about testing if they had to stay home for five days, especially since we do not have paid sick leave in the United States, consistently," Guest said. "We need to make sure that we are always fighting for paid sick leave. But, this is a way to make sure that people who do not have a lot of time and need to go back to work to for their income or their children need to go back to school can."
Verdaillia Turner, president of the Georgia Federation of Teachers, wants to see the data used to make this decision. She said sick kids in and out of Georgia's classrooms — can be a problem.
"COVID has been confusing and has been a misfortune for all of us... many times when children are out of school, we have a learning loss," Turner said. "Sometimes the parents are sick themselves, but they will send their children to school and then those children will infect everyone else around them."
If these new guidelines are followed properly, it could help teachers and students. Still, there are concerns it could have the opposite effect.
"Teachers want to teach and we need them at work, but we need them whole and healthy. We have a teacher shortage for various reasons, and we don't want to add to that problem by losing teachers because they are ill or sick," Turner said. "Districts need real strict guidelines so that the public in which they serve will understand that when our employees are ill, we expect them to stay home. And when children are ill, we expect them to stay home also."