When someone finishes their COVID-19 isolation, a big question remains: are they still contagious? A new report from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region in Alaska set out to find an answer by checking the percentage of people who still had a positive antigen test after their isolation period. Antigen tests are the rapid at-home tests many of us have used.
The report focused on this specific, remote region, but it doesn't tell us who was studied, how many people were involved, or what the actual results were. We don't know if a lot of people or just a few were still testing positive. The report also doesn't mention if there were any safety issues or problems during the study.
It's important to be clear about what this is: it's a report that a study was done, not the final results. Because the findings aren't shared, we can't draw any conclusions yet about how long people in these communities should isolate or when it's truly safe to be around others again. The work highlights a critical question for public health, but we're still waiting for the numbers that will help answer it.
