Ireland has become the latest EU country to cut the isolation period for many people who contract Covid-19 as record infection numbers spark fears of crippling staff shortages in essential public services and the retail and hospitality sectors.
Spain, Portugal and Greece reduced isolation times this week, while others, such as Germany and France, are considering doing so and Italy cut its quarantine for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who has tested positive.
The moves follow a similar decision by the United States and reflect early research suggesting the highly transmissible Omicron variant fuelling the pandemic’s latest surge generally causes milder illness than earlier versions of the virus.
However, the sheer number of people becoming infected – and so having to self-isolate if they contract the virus, or quarantine if they are a contact of someone who tests positive – threatens to cause chaos in hospitals and on public transport.
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“Many Omicron cases are going to be asymptomatic,” Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday after halving the recommended isolation time for asymptomatic people to five from 10 days.
“We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning, while following the science.”
The UK’s Health Security Agency on Wednesday cut the 10-day self-isolation period for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in England who have tested positive for coronavirus from 10 days to seven if they get the all-clear from lateral flow tests.
The World Health Organisation has described the decisions to cut isolation and quarantine periods as part of a delicate balancing act between controlling the transmission of the virus and keeping national economies up and running.
“It is a trade-off between the science and being absolutely perfect in what you try to do, but then having the minimal disruption you can possibly have,” Michael Ryan, the WHO emergencies director, said. “Governments are struggling to find that balance.”
The Irish government on Friday cut the isolation period to seven days from 10 for people who have tested positive but received a booster vaccine or been infected within the previous three months.
With the Omicron variant accounting for 92 per cent of all infections in Ireland, now running at more than double their previous record, the country’s chief medical officer also urged people to keep social contacts as low as possible before New Year’s Eve.
Spain, where infection numbers have increased fivefold in a month, cut its isolation period for people who have tested positive to seven days from 10 on Wednesday after a meeting between the health minister, Carolina Darias, and regional health chiefs.
The quarantine period for close contacts of people who have tested positive was also reduced to seven days. The prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said the country needed to strike “a balance” between public health, mental health and economic growth.
Portugal followed suit on Thursday, cutting its mandatory isolation period for people who test positive but are asymptomatic from 10 days to seven, after health experts urged the government to rethink amid concerns the country could become paralysed.
Greece reduced its isolation period for coronavirus patients further, to five days from 10, after the country set a fourth consecutive daily record of new infections. “The evidence we have from Omicron is encouraging,” said the health minister, Thanos Plevris.
Members of the public who come into contact with a confirmed Covid case will have to quarantine for five days and then get a test, but quarantine will not be required for those who have already received a booster shot.
Italy chose a different course, leaving its isolation period untouched but scrapping quarantine for those coming into contact with someone who has tested positive providing they have had a booster shot, recently recovered or been vaccinated.
They will have to wear a more protective FFP2 (equivalent to KN95 or N95 in other regions) mask for 10 days and take a test within five days since the contact with the positive person - but only if they are showing symptoms.
Germany’s Der Spiegel reported this week that the health minister, Karl Lauterbach, favoured shortening quarantine periods amid fears the country would soon grind to a halt given how many people are having to self-isolate protectively.
In France, which this week set a new European record for daily infections, media have reported that the government’s HAS health advisory body is due to make a formal recommendation on the question on Friday.
France operates a seven-day isolation period, and a 17-day quarantine for people living in the same household as someone who has tested positive. The health minister, Olivier Veran, due to announce any change on January 2nd. – Guardian