BEIJING (AP) — China will drop a COVID-19 quarantine requirement for passengers arriving from abroad starting Jan. 8, the National Health Commission announced Monday in the latest easing of the country’s once-strict virus-control measures.

Currently, arriving passengers must quarantine for five days at a hotel, followed by three days at home. That is down from as much as three weeks in the past.

The scrapping of the quarantine requirement is a major step toward fully reopening travel with the rest of the world, which the government severely curtailed in a bid to keep the virus out.

The restrictions have prevented most Chinese from traveling abroad, limited face-to-face diplomatic exchanges and sharply reduced the number of foreigners in China for work and study.

China’s health commission said that steps would be taken to make it easier for some foreigners to enter the country, though it didn’t include tourists. It did indicate that Chinese would be gradually allowed to travel abroad for tourism again, an important source of revenue for hotels and related businesses in many countries.

People coming to China will still need a negative virus test 48 hours before departure and passengers will be required to wear protective masks on board, an online post from the health commission said.

China abruptly dropped many of its pandemic restrictions earlier this month, sparking widespread outbreaks that have swamped hospital emergency rooms and funeral homes.

The move followed rare public protests against the restrictions, which have slowed the economy, putting people out of work and driving restaurants and shops out of business.

For more than 2 ½ years, Chinese authorities enforced a strict zero-COVID approach that became a signature policy of leader Xi Jinping.

The arrival of the fast-spreading omicron variant in late 2021 made the strategy increasingly untenable, requiring ever-wider lockdowns that stymied growth and disrupted lives.

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It was while picking my 2-year-old’s pancakes from my 4-year-old’s hair last week that I got the email: After two days in school since our last quarantine, my daughter’s preschool class was in quarantine again.

Omicron has thrown everyone. It’s thrown medical professionals. It’s thrown politicians. And it’s thrown parents of children under 5 back to March 2020, when we were expected to work full-time jobs while quarantining toddlers. Now we’re doing it again. Unless the childcare quarantine rules change, we’ll keep doing it, a week at a time, again and again.

This whiplash is due to health guidance requiring unvaccinated people to quarantine following any COVID exposure. Because preschool- and day care-age kids are mostly ineligible for vaccines, this means that anytime one of the 27 students and staff in my daughter’s preschool class or the dozen children and staff in my son’s day care tests positive, my kid must quarantine for a week.

Given that approximately 1 in 10 Bay Area residents had an asymptomatic COVID infection at the height of the surge, and our preschool tests students twice weekly, it is no wonder my daughter was in preschool 10 days of the last four weeks.

It doesn’t have to be this way. It isn’t this way for school-aged kids. California and the CDC allow unvaccinated children to stay in school after an in-school exposure if the students were masked and the exposed student is asymptomatic and tested. Bay Area jurisdictions have embraced that policy despite the Omicron surge, insisting schools stay open.

Why is childcare treated differently? It can’t be vaccination eligibility, as the K-12 rules apply to unvaccinated students. It can’t be risk of severe disease, as children under 5 have very low risk of COVID hospitalization, like their school-aged counterparts. It can’t be masking rules, as the child care quarantine-at-home rule applies regardless of a child care center’s masking policy. (In my daughter’s preschool class, where mask compliance is high, not one exposed child has tested positive during any quarantine this year.)

I suspect part of the rationale for treating child care and school differently may be that K-12 students risk formal education loss if quarantined at home. But that minimizes the social and emotional learning that younger children do in childcare settings — learning that prepares them for elementary school and beyond. If you think early-learning experiences aren’t important to kids, I’ll put you on speakerphone the next time my son talks about doing the party freeze dance with Zoe and Nicco.

Such distinctions between child care and school also miss the parents’ perspective. It’s hard to overstate how difficult it is to work while caring for someone whose favorite game is called “one, two, three, KABOOM!” Many of my friends with small kids now wonder — again — if they should quit their jobs. We’re told this isn’t March 2020, but it can sure feel like it.

I don’t doubt the seriousness of this surge or COVID restrictions generally. But this policy just doesn’t seem right. Not when vaccines are widely available, and therapeutics help the most vulnerable. For Pete’s sake, we now allow young children to attend NBA games where, if even 1 in 40 attendees has COVID, a child has a greater than 25% chance that someone within a two-seat radius of them is infected. And yet, we don’t allow parents to send children to day care if one since-removed child tested positive.

To be sure, some parents will not send their child back to child care after an in-school exposure. But let that be our decision, based on our circumstances. We can’t keep doing this.

Cynthia Stein, of Oakland, is an attorney and mother of two kids under 5 years old.

CYNTHIA STEIN | Contributed

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday explained the scientific rationale for shortening its COVID-19 isolation and quarantine recommendations, and clarified that the guidance applies to kids as well as adults.

The CDC also maintained that, for people who catch COVID-19, testing is not required to emerge from five days of isolation — despite hints from other federal officials that the agency was reconsidering that.

The agency announced the changes last week, halving the isolation time for Americans who catch the coronavirus and have no symptoms or only brief illnesses. Isolation should only end if a person has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and if other symptoms are resolving, the CDC added.

It similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine, from 10 days to five.

CDC officials previously said the changes were in keeping with evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop.

Some experts have questioned how the new recommendations were crafted and why they were changed amid a spike in cases driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. Some also expressed dismay that the guidelines allowed people to leave isolation without getting tested to see if they were still infectious.

On Tuesday, the CDC posted documents designed to address those — and other — questions about the latest recommendations. The new guidance applies to school children as well as adults, the CDC said, responding to questions raised by school leaders around the country.

In laying out the scientific basis for the revisions, the agency said more than 100 studies from 17 countries indicate that most transmission happens early in an infection. The CDC acknowledged the data come from research done when delta and other pre-omicron variants were causing the most infections. But the agency also pointed to limited, early data from the U.S. and South Korea that suggests the time between exposure and the appearance of symptoms may be shorter for omicron than for earlier variants.

The CDC also took up the question of why it didn’t call for a negative test before people emerge from isolation.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the White House’s top medical adviser — said the CDC was considering including the negative test as part of its guidance.

The agency said lab tests can show positive results long after someone stops being contagious, and that a negative at-home test may not necessarily indicate there is no threat. That’s why, the agency said, it was recommending that people wears masks everywhere for the five days after isolation ends.

It did offer tips for those who have access to the tests and want to check themselves before leaving isolation.

Dr. Eric Topol, the head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, accused the agency of furthering confusion. He agreed that it is appropriate to shorten isolation time, but only with testing.

“We do need to come up with a strategy that limits isolation time, but we don’t want it to be one that’s adding to the spread of the virus and unwittingly leading to the virus circulating,” he said.

Yale University’s Dr. Howard Forman said the updated recommendations were communicated poorly last week, but he also applauded the CDC for trying to be more nimble while dealing with limited science, a short supply of tests and an intensifying wave of infections.

Under the previous isolation and quarantine recommendations, “it was obvious that … society was literally going to be disrupted. If you expected people to comply with those (old) rules, you might as well have a lockdown,” said Forman, a radiologist who teaches public health policy.

The agency acknowledged people weren’t following the longer recommendations: Research suggests only 25% to 30% of people were isolating for a full 10 days under the older guidance, the CDC said.

The CDC also suggests that people exposed to the virus quarantine for five days, unless they have gotten booster shots or recently received their initial vaccine doses. The agency said anyone exposed — regardless of vaccination status — should get tested five days later, if possible.

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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Monday cut isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said the guidance is in keeping with growing evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop.

The decision also was driven by a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, propelled by the omicron variant.

Early research suggests omicron may cause milder illnesses than earlier versions of the coronavirus. But the sheer number of people becoming infected — and therefore having to isolate or quarantine — threatens to crush the ability of hospitals, airlines and other businesses to stay open, experts say.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the country is about to see a lot of omicron cases.

“Not all of those cases are going to be severe. In fact many are going to be asymptomatic,” she told The Associated Press on Monday. “We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science.”

Last week, the agency loosened rules that previously called on health care workers to stay out of work for 10 days if they test positive. The new recommendations said workers could go back to work after seven days if they test negative and don’t have symptoms. And the agency said isolation time could be cut to five days, or even fewer, if there are severe staffing shortages.

Now, the CDC is changing the isolation and quarantine guidance for the general public to be even less stringent.

The change is aimed at people who are not experiencing symptoms. People with symptoms during isolation, or who develop symptoms during quarantine, are encouraged to stay home.

The CDC’s isolation and quarantine guidance has confused the public, and the new recommendations are “happening at a time when more people are testing positive for the first time and looking for guidance,” said Lindsay Wiley, an American University public health law expert.

Nevertheless, the guidance continues to be complex.

ISOLATION

The isolation rules are for people who are infected. They are the same for people who are unvaccinated, partly vaccinated, fully vaccinated or boosted.

They say:

—The clock starts the day you test positive.

—An infected person should go into isolation for five days, instead of the previously recommended 10.

—At the end of five days, if you have no symptoms, you can return to normal activities but must wear a mask everywhere — even at home around others — for at least five more days.

—If you still have symptoms after isolating for five days, stay home until you feel better and then start your five days of wearing a mask at all times.

QUARANTINE

The quarantine rules are for people who were in close contact with an infected person but not infected themselves.

For quarantine, the clock starts the day someone is alerted they may have been exposed to the virus.

Previously, the CDC said people who were not fully vaccinated and who came in close contact with an infected person should stay home for at least 10 days.

Now the agency is saying only people who got booster shots can skip quarantine if they wear masks in all settings for at least 10 days.

That’s a change. Previously, people who were fully vaccinated — which the CDC has defined as having two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — could be exempt from quarantine.

Now, people who got their initial shots but not boosters are in the same situation as those who are partly vaccinated or are not vaccinated at all: They can stop quarantine after five days if they wear masks in all settings for five days afterward.

FIVE DAYS

Suspending both isolation and quarantine after five days is not without risk.

A lot of people get tested when they first feel symptoms, but many Americans get tested for others reasons, like to see if they can visit family or for work. That means a positive test result may not reveal exactly when a person was infected or give a clear picture of when they are most contagious, experts say.

When people get infected, the risk of spread drops substantially after five days, but it does not disappear for everyone, said Dr. Aaron Glatt, a New York physician who is a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“If you decrease it to five days, you’re still going to have a small but significant number of people who are contagious,” he said.

That’s why wearing masks is a critical part of the CDC guidance, Walensky said.

VARYING RECOMMENDATIONS

The new CDC guidance is not a mandate; it’s a recommendation to employers and state and local officials. Last week, New York state said it would expand on the CDC’s guidance for health care workers to include employees who have other critical jobs that are facing a severe staffing shortage.

It’s possible other states will seek to shorten their isolation and quarantine policies, and CDC is trying to get out ahead of the shift. “It would be helpful to have uniform CDC guidance” that others could draw from, rather than a mishmash of policies, Walensky said.

Given the timing with surging case counts, the update “is going to be perceived as coming in response to pressure from business interests,” Wiley said. But some experts have been calling for the change for months, because shorter isolation and quarantine periods appeared to be sufficient to slow the spread, she said.

The move by CDC follows a decision last week by U.K. officials to reduce the self-isolation period for vaccinated people who test positive for COVID-19.

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While the disruption the coronavirus has caused the educational system is clear, the long-term impact on students’ mental health is even greater cause for concern. Research recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that young people who are lonely are up to three times more likely to develop depression, creating mental health issues that could last nearly a decade.

The study found that more than one-third of adolescents reported a high level of loneliness during lockdown. While these findings are alarming, utilizing service-learning to supplement traditional curriculum can give students a sense of purpose and connection, helping mitigate loneliness in a digital environment.

One program that has shown success in fostering social and emotional learning is the Lead4Change Student Leadership Program, which encompasses digital lessons in leadership, as well as creating and implementing team projects to meet a need in the community. “What I want people to take away from our project is that even through isolation, you can still find ways to help out in your community,” says Genesis Morgane, a student from Garner, N.C. who created the “Corona Relief Crew” through the program, distributing kits with essential food and supplies to the homeless and those in nursing homes who have been severely impacted by the pandemic.

While the pandemic meant that students had to rapidly adjust to physical distancing guidelines, they were successful in completing their project and building meaningful relationships in a remote environment. “The most amazing part of their efforts was that everything was done virtually,” says Dr. Cleopatra Lacewell, the teacher overseeing the Corona Relief Crew. “The youth had to engage one another through emails, texts and a computer screen, which is often a challenge for me as an adult.”

The Corona Relief Crew was honored by Lead4Change with a $10,000 grant for the nonprofit of their choice, but an equally rewarding outcome of the project was instilling in its participants a sense of meaning in connection in their community. “We decided that everyone is at home, alone, having to stay in quarantine and distance themselves from everyone else,” says Morgane. “We said, ‘Why don’t we think about them and let them know that we have not forgotten about them.’”

For more information about the Lead4Change Student Leadership Program and accompanying Challenge, visit lead4change.org. The disruption students face due to the pandemic is widespread, but not evenly distributed. The UN’s research found that groups that are already vulnerable when it comes to receiving education—those living in poor or rural areas, girls, refugees, and persons with disabilities—experience the greatest impact.

The good news is that many digital programs like Lead4Change, which is a free program for all participants, only require enthusiasm and investment of time from students and their teachers.

-StatePoint

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