 While much of the nation and the state recovers from COVID-19, some may be wondering how long they should stay home before returning to work following recent guidance from the CDC. In response, Mountaintop spoke with Pike County Public Health Director Tammy Riley about some steps you can take if you contract COVID. The minimum or the most relaxed guidance from the CDC, and you've tested positive for COVID. The most relaxed guidance is five days at home in isolation. And then if your symptoms are resolving, no fever, then you can leave on the six-day isolation and return to work if or, you know, in the public. If you're not returning into a high-risk area like a congregate setting, healthcare workers, there are some exceptions. But for the general public, after five days, if symptoms are improving and you are able to wear a mask for an additional five days, then you can leave isolation. That is the most relaxed guidance for those testing positive. At Pifal Medical Center, our vision of creating a heart and vascular institute that will reliable any other in Kentucky is a reality. We've assembled a top team of more than 30 multidisciplinary providers. Together, those highly experienced providers perform many of the most advanced cardiac procedures available anywhere. We have armed them with cutting-edge technology and resources needed to provide comprehensive heart care close to home. Pifal Medical Center, when it comes to your heart, place your care in our hands. For those who have been exposed to COVID-19, the CDC recommends to wear a mask for 10 days and to test on the fifth day, regardless of vaccination status. Riley adds how the county is faring in COVID-19 cases as well. And we've had over 400, the last update, we had 456 actually active cases. So we're still seeing quite a few cases, 30 to 40 cases a day, Sundays as a high. But we're not seeing the disease severity, illness severity that we were seeing in the past with, like, say, Delta variant in the earlier Omicron. There's certainly been some improvement in disease severity. So the hospitalizations, for example, ICU, things of that nature, have seemed to be resolving quite a bit. For more information, you can call the Pike County Health Department at 606-437-5500 or visit CDC.gov. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Korgel.