On December 29, the Ministry of Health decided to cut the isolation period for people who have been infected with COVID-19 from 10 days to 7 . Of course, they must not have symptoms. The measure follows the example of the United Kingdom, which does require that two consecutive tests be carried out and that these two give negative to leave the isolation. The decision comes at a time when the omicron variant advances unstoppably across the planet and has even reached Antarctica.
What is the reason for reducing the isolation time?
It all comes as a result of a statement issued by the American CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the country, which proposed to reduce the isolation time for asymptomatic infected from 10 to 5 days.
And why this change? According to the CDC, the change is motivated by the scientific demonstration that most infections occur at the beginning of the disease, on the first and second days of onset of symptoms and two or three days later . For this reason, the positives should be isolated for five days if they are asymptomatic when leaving.
The American CDC also issued a new recommendation for those who have been in contact with someone infected. From now on, those who have not been vaccinated or have not received the third puncture will have to remain isolated for five days. These people must use a mask strictly for five more days (there it is not mandatory in general). Those who do have the complete guideline will not quarantine, but they will wear a mask for 10 days after exposure. In Spain, if you are not vaccinated and you have had close contact, a 7-day quarantine should be kept. If you are up to date with the vaccine you do not have to quarantine.
When is it most contagious?
According to a study published in The Lancet in November 2020, the highest contagiousness occurs in the first five days of infection . There are also exceptions and there is a documented case in which a person was expelling the virus through the respiratory tract 83 days after becoming infected.
Since the pandemic began, experts have verified that the highest viral loads are reached between 48 hours before symptoms appear and 48 hours after. Therefore, there are four days in which a greater amount of virus is expelled and, therefore, is more contagious.
There are still many doubts about COVID-19 in general and omicron in particular, but the data suggests that this variant, although explosive in terms of infections, produces fewer serious cases .
The most common symptoms of the omicron variant are, according to a study published by the CDC, dry cough (it occurs in 89% of those infected), fatigue (65%) and nasal congestion (59%). To a lesser extent, there are shortness of breath (16%) and diarrhea (11%). Loss of taste and smell is the least frequent symptom (8%).
