Covid-19: UK reduces isolation days for fully vaccinated positives to five

The British government reduced the isolation period for fully vaccinated people who test positive for coronavirus from seven to five days. The measure, which will take effect next Monday, was announced today by Health Minister Sajid Javid. This morning, Health Minister Sajid Javid during an address to Parliament’s House of Commons in London.The minister explained that the decision is based on data from the UK Health Security Agency, which shows that “around two-thirds of positive cases are no longer infectious by the end of day five”. Javid said people will be able to leave isolation after negative sideflow tests on days five and six. Last month, the government had already reduced isolation from 10 to seven days with negative tests on days six and seven. He added that the move aims to maximize activity in the economy and “minimize the risk of people leaving isolation.” However, he clarified that the virus is still circulating and warned that there are likely to be difficult weeks ahead. But, at the same time, he also said there are encouraging signs in the data that infections were declining in London and eastern England, although they were rising in other parts of the country. As of this week, people with a positive side-flow test no longer need to take the PCR test to confirm they have coronavirus. With the increase in the prevalence of the Ómicron variant, absences from work related to the coronavirus have been felt in different sectors, mainly in health and transport. At least 45,736 nhS hospital employees in England were on leave every day due to the coronavirus during the week ending January 9. The UK yesterday reported 129,587 new cases and 398 deaths from Covid-19.

Original source in Spanish