Alameda County has announced that it will maintain current quarantine requirements as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Alameda County is aligned with the State’s K-12 and childcare quarantine guidance, and this announcement does not impact children and youth in these settings. The City of Berkeley is an independent local health jurisdiction and has aligned its quarantine guidance with the State.

People who are not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated should stay home and away from other people for at least 5 days after their last contact with a person who has COVID-19. They may leave quarantine after day 5 if they test negative on or after day 5, if they have no symptoms. People who are symptomatic or who test positive must follow isolation requirements. A person is fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving all recommended doses in the primary series of their COVID-19 vaccination. Quarantine is not required for people who have had COVID within the last 90 days.

For quarantine requirements, Alameda County continues to use the CDC’s definition of close contact: being less than 6 feet away from someone with confirmed COVID-19 for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. People with confirmed COVID-19 are considered infectious starting two days before either developing symptoms or testing positive if they have no symptoms.

These requirements will continue until Alameda County announces alignment with the State’s quarantine guidance and definition of close contact. Local health officials will review Alameda County case data weekly to determine if continuing with the CDC’s quarantine guidance is necessary to protect public health.

Alameda County health officials monitor local, regional, state, and federal data to inform local public health decisions. A sharp change in case trends or other metrics as we saw during this winter’s Omicron surge may require additional measures to protect public health

Read the press release.