Iowa Cuts Quarantine for Those Exposed to COVID-19 in Defiance of CDC Guidance

Iowa will no longer require those exposed to a confirmed case of the new coronavirus to quarantine for two weeks, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds announced at a Tuesday press conference. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that anyone who has come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19 should quarantine for two weeks, and the state’s epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Pedati acknowledged the break with the scientific agency’s guidelines. The state is already a hotspot of new coronavirus infections. Reynolds justified the decision as helping the state’s schools by allowing them to keep students at their desks. “In some situations, they're having to quarantine a disproportionately high number of students when just a few positive cases have been identified,” she said. The state does not mandate masks be worn in schools or in public.