Saying that Covid “is no longer the emergency that it once was,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance on dealing with the virus and other respiratory diseases on March 1.

The CDC said patients can return to normal activities when, following a period of 24 hours, symptoms show signs of improvement and fever is gone without the use of medication. Gone is the previous five-day Covid isolation guidance.

The new guidance does suggest that when infected individuals resume normal activities they take precautionary measures for the following five days, including enhanced hygiene, getting tested for respiratory diseases and masking in public.

The nation is seeing fewer hospitalizations and deaths from Covid. This along with new treatments and medicines to manage the disease led the CDC to drop the previous isolation guidance and to streamline its recommendations for dealing with the illness.

Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC, said, “Today’s announcement reflects the progress we have made in protecting against serious illness from Covid-19.” Cohen added: “We still must use the common-sense solutions we know work,” including “vaccination, treatment and staying home when we get sick.”

The new guidance notes that the recommendations are for community settings and that guidance for health-care settings has not changed.

Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.