Four years ago, New York state was coming to grips with its first confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing home a fear that had been growing for months. And while all those restrictions are long gone, one holdover by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was only lifted last week.

It's a new strategy from the CDC after years of trying to control the spread of COVID-19 through isolation. They no longer recommend people who test positive stay home for at least five days. In new guidance released late last week, the CDC now suggests staying home until you’re fever-free for 24 hours and your symptoms are improving. 

It’s a big change as New York state looks toward ending the policy of mandated specific COVID sick leave in the workplace. 

"The new guidelines are aligning with the guidelines that we presently use for other respiratory viruses such as RSV and influenza," Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease expert at the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine, said.

Russo said the new recommendations reflect the fact that deaths and hospitalizations from COVID have been down this season compared to past years.  But that doesn’t mean New York is completely free of the virus and its dangers.

"It is important to note that we still averaged well over a thousand deaths in this country on a weekly basis. And those that were most affected are our most vulnerable. Those were seniors and the immunocompromised," he said.

The CDC recommends if you go back to work or school that you wear a mask for five days.  

"To be clear, COVID is more lethal than flu — estimated three to four fold more," Russo said. "We’re still having a significant number of weekly deaths in this country."

The CDC still encourages people to get tested if they have symptoms, and to have their vaccinations up to date.

"I think part of this guidance reflects that people were not testing when they developed respiratory tract symptoms, particularly if there are minor respiratory tract symptoms, in part, because if they tested positive because they didn’t want to land in isolation for five days," Russo said.

So what does this mean for New York’s mandated sick leave specifically for COVID-19?

In her executive budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed letting the law expire in July. Until then, the Department of Labor says there will be no changes in its enforcement of the policy. So that extra sick time employers had to allow for COVID-19 could be a thing of the past in a few months, another sign that we’ve moved past the emergency situation of the pandemic.