By Self-isolation period for Covid contacts and holiday quarantine cut to 10 days
Those who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus will have to self-isolate for 10 days instead of 14, starting from Monday.
Those required to quarantine after returning from countries which are not on the travel corridor list will also see their isolation period reduced the same, in an agreement from all four nations.
The changes were announced by the UK’s chief medical officers and will come into force in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the 14th of December.
The action has already come into force in Wales.
Health chiefs from the four nations said in a joint statement that following a review of the evidence, they were “confident” that the self-isolation period could be shortened.
They stated:
“After reviewing the evidence, we are now confident that we can reduce the number of days that contacts self-isolate from 14 days to 10 days”.
“People who return from countries which are not on the travel corridor list should also self-isolate for 10 days instead of 14 days”.
“People who test positive should continue to self-isolate for 10 days from onset of symptoms or 10 days from point of taking a positive test if asymptomatic”.
They added:
“We urge everyone to self-isolate when appropriate, it will save lives”.
Dr Jenny Harries, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said the science is based on the accumulation of evidence throughout the pandemic.
She explained:
“SAGE looked at this, as well as a number of academic institutions”.
“All of those combined together showed that the tail-end of infectiousness is when an individual is less likely to infection”.
“So allowing somebody out of self-isolation a short time earlier than that is a reasonable balance between managing the risk to the public, but allowing us not to intrude on their lives”.
