PA Updates Quarantine Guidance For Those Fully Vaccinated

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania has updated its COVID-19 quarantine guidance for those who have been fully vaccinated. The guidance, updated late last week, now mirrors that of the Centers for Disease Control.

Under the updated guidance, people who have had both doses of a two-dose vaccine or one dose of a single dose vaccine do not need to quarantine after exposure to another person with COVID-19 if they meet all the following criteria:

• They are fully vaccinated (more than two weeks following receipt of the second dose in a two-dose series, or of one dose of a single-dose vaccine).
• They are within three months following receipt of the last dose in the series.
• They have remained asymptomatic since the current COVID-19 exposure.

"This does not mean the vaccine is only effective for three months, but rather that it is unclear how long immunity from vaccine will last," the state clarified when announcing its updated guidance. "The CDC is utilizing what is known about natural post-infection immunity and limiting the quarantine guidance to 90 days at this time while additional research is conducted."

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Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said Pennsylvania will continue to follow the CDC's lead on quarantine protocols. "I want to stress, though, that regardless of vaccination status, individuals who are showing new or unexplained symptoms of COVID-19 still need to isolate and be tested for COVID-19," Beam said.

State health officials continue to discourage any nonessential travel, even for people who are fully vaccinated.

"In addition, there are new circulating strains of COVID-19 in other states and countries that are being investigated, and vaccine effectiveness on these variant strains is not fully known," the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health said in its announcement on the updated guidance.

For more information on where and how to get vaccinated, go here. You can also check out Patch's vaccine information hub for additional details.