University of Kentucky study says a 7-day COVID quarantine may be enough for students
A shorter quarantine period for asymptomatic university students exposed to COVID-19 may be nearly as safe as a two-week quarantine period, according to a new study from the University of Kentucky.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends a 10-day quarantine for anyone not showing symptoms but who has been directly exposed to the novel coronavirus — shortened earlier this month from the previous 14-day window, which the CDC says is still the safest option.
UK researchers, though, determined that a seven-day quarantine window for asymptomatic college students should be just as sufficient when coupled with the right testing strategy.
The study, which is pending journal review, was led by Dr. Jill Kolesar, administrative director of UK’s Precision Medicine Clinic and professor in the UK College of Pharmacy.
Roughly 24,000 students returned to campus at the start of the fall semester with the understanding that, should they be directly exposed to someone with COVID-19, they would need to quarantine for 14 days — a period of time that was challenging for many, Kolesar said. Though UK stopped publicly reporting its coronavirus metrics just before Thanksgiving when classes ended, close to 50,000 tests had been administered between August and late November, and at least 2,378 students tested positive.
During last semester, Kolesar and her team monitored 90 asymptomatic students who were quarantined for 14 days after being exposed to one of those 2,378 students. All 90 were tested with nasopharyngeal swabs six times throughout that two week period, on days three, four, five, seven, 10 and 14, according to a press release about the study.
Fourteen of those 90 students had at least one positive test in quarantine, but no one tested positive after day seven, Kolesar said Thursday afternoon.
“The 16 percent positive rate supports the ongoing need to quarantine close contacts,” but her team’s findings otherwise represent the “first direct evidence that exposed asymptomatic students ages 18-44 are at low risk if released from quarantine at seven days,” as long as they first test negative, the study found.
UK President Dr. Eli Capilouto lauded Kolesar’s study on Thursday, saying it will “inform our spring semester quarantine policies.”
Shortening the quarantine window at UK to seven days, which has not been finalized, wouldn’t be 100 percent effective at preventing transmission of COVID-19 from people cleared to leave quarantine — some students will become infected after seven days, for instance. But Kolesar said she expects it to be 90 percent effective.
A driving force behind the study was the reality that many students were not fully complying with the former 14-day quarantine procedures.
“To many students, 14 days is a lifetime,” Kolesar said, and “Adherence to current quarantine times is poor.”
The thinking is that, if a student learns they need to stay shut indoors for one week as opposed to two, they’d be “much more willing” to stick to it, she said. Cutting quarantine time in half also may lessen the chance that in-state students opt to return home to ride out their stint in quarantine, where they risk infecting family members.
It has mental health benefits, too. A quarter of college students get treatment for depression or anxiety. Since “isolation, including prolonged quarantine, may have significant negative impacts on college students’ mental health,” she said, this shortened window could benefit those “struggling with isolation.”
“Anything we could do to make it shorter we certainly felt was worthwhile,” she said.
