The Centers for Disease Control and prevention has updated its guidance, now declaring that even brief exposure, if repeated, can increase your risk of contracting COVID-19. A study posted Wednesday on the CDC website cites an incident where a “correctional officer had multiple brief encounters” with six asymptomatic inmates in quarantine, and later tested positive for the coronavirus. Previous CDC guidance declared that “close contact” exposure of at least 15 minutes within six feet of someone with COVID-19 was necessary in order to transmit the disease.
“Although the initial assessment did not suggest that the officer had close contact exposures, detailed review of video footage identified that the cumulative duration of exposures exceeded 15 minutes,” the study states. The CDC say the new study demonstrates that virus transmission can occur even with multiple exposures, each less than a minute in duration. The CDC has subsequently updated its published guidance to define close contact as “Someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.”
CDC study shows multiple, brief “close contact” exposures can result in COVID-19 transmission
