1/ There seems to be some confusion about QUARANTINE versus ISOLATION. Here's an infectious disease epidemiology 101:

2/ QUARANTINE refers to people who have been EXPOSED and may or may not be infected (e.g. VP Pence). They may be incubating the virus, but they aren't testing positive currently.

3/ The QUARANTINE period for coronavirus is 14d because from the time of exposure to test positivity can take as long as 14d. During that time, the exposed person can be retested repeatedly (at the WH, daily), but they're not in the clear until they hit 14d.

4/ During that QUARANTINE period, someone should stay at home and away from others.

5/ ISOLATION refers to people who are infected and infectious to others (e.g. Hope Hicks, POTUS, FLOTUS). People with COVID are infectious up to 2 days prior to symptom onset and typically up to 10 days after symptom onset.

6/ People with severe COVID or immunosuppression may remain infectious longer than 10 days after symptom onset.

7/ Most of us don't have access to daily testing for COVID (unlike the WH), so we don't know exactly when we became test positive and could have been infectious to others. The closest we can guesstimate is 2 days prior to symptom onset.

8/ Most of us don't have access to daily testing for COVID (again, unlike the WH), so we don't know exactly how long we remain infectious after testing positive / symptom onset.

9/ The closest we can guesstimate is 10 days after symptom onset (but again, this can be longer with severe COVID or immunosuppression).

10/ Summary:
- QUARANTINE: 14 days for exposed, possibly infected persons (a negative test on day 1 does not mean you'll remain negative)
- ISOLATION: 10+ days for infected persons

11/ PS: My father-in-law died at a memory care center in AZ about 2 1/2 weeks ago. He didn't die of COVID, but staff & residents at the facility had been diagnosed with COVID.

12/ When my husband @grantwahl got back from AZ, he was considered EXPOSED & thus went into 14d QUARANTINE at the hotel across the street. He just wrapped up 14d today & is back home!

13/ Welcome home from quarantine @GrantWahl!