The Directorate General of Health (DGS) today indicated that it is “technically assessing” the issue of reducing the isolation period for people infected with the coronavirus that causes covid-19 and collecting scientific evidence.
Asked by Lusa about the matter, citing the case of the United States, which has reduced the isolation of infected individuals and high-risk contacts, the DG DG said, without further details, that it was “gathering the best scientific evidence and technically assessing the issue.”
Speaking to the SIC, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Health, Antonio Lacerda Sales, said that several indicators are being evaluated, namely infection occurrence, transmission and hospitalization.
Earlier, in an interview with RTP, Lacerda Sales admitted that, given the development of the epidemic, reducing the period of isolation, also adopted by the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the United Kingdom, is “a possible matter”, which is being studied “by the Directorate General of Democracy.
Today, after the cabinet meeting, the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, sent a decision on the matter to the health authorities, in particular to the General Directorate of Security, indicating that it is technical and not political.
The Medical Syndicate considers the new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic to require “agile adaptation” of rules and procedures, and recommends reducing isolation from ten to seven days.
Madeira today reduced to five days the isolation of people infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 disease and those who had contact with positive cases, even ending the quarantine of contacts who were vaccinated with the third dose.
The changes are due to the predominance of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and ‘current scientific evidence’ which ‘suggests that most transmission’ occurs ‘early in the course of the disease’, usually within two days ‘before symptoms appear’ and two to three days later. , according to a circular from the Provincial Secretariat of Health and Civil Protection of Madeira.
The United States has reduced the isolation period for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 from ten to five days, as long as they are not showing symptoms.
According to a source at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the guidelines are in line with increasing indications that people infected with the new coronavirus are most contagious two and three days after symptoms appear.
The United Kingdom has cut the isolation period from ten to seven days for vaccinators who have contracted the infection.
The National Association of Public Health Physicians recognizes that the scientific information that supports reducing the isolation period for patients with COVID-19 is “not very robust,” arguing that the merits of this measure should be discussed.
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