Fearing that the new COVID-19 wave may overwhelm the understaffed US hospitals, federal officials relaxed the regulations on Thursday, requiring medical staff to stop working for 10 days when they test positive.

If these workers test negative and have no symptoms, they will now be allowed to return to work after 7 days. According to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if there is a severe shortage of personnel, the isolation period can be shortened to five days or even less.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement: “As the healthcare community prepares for the expected surge in patients caused by omicron, the CDC is updating our recommendations to reflect our And enhance the understanding of infection and exposure in the context of doses.”

She added: “Our goal is to ensure the safety of medical staff and patients, and to solve and prevent our medical facilities from being overburdened.”

Quarantine aims to keep infected people away from uninfected people to prevent further spread of the virus.

CDC officials recommend that when calculating the 10-day quarantine period, the first day should be the first day after symptoms first appear or test positive. If a person develops symptoms sometime after testing positive for COVID-19, the isolation period must be restarted, starting one day after the symptoms appear.