Zoom News : Oct 22, 2020, 07:23 PM
Washington: Federal health officials changed the definition of a close contact of a Covid-19 case, after a Vermont prison officer tested positive following several brief encounters with infected inmates.The officer, a 20-year-old man, never was within 6 feet of any of the prisoners for 15 or more consecutive minutes, according to a report on the case by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Vermont Department of Health posted Wednesday.After publishing the report online, the CDC altered its definition of a close contact, saying it is now someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.The previous definition was anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes.“In the end, you just need to inhale enough virus, and there wasn’t any indication that they all need to be inhaled at the same time,” said Jose-Luis Jimenez, a professor of chemistry and aerosol scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder.