The world is on the cusp of another wave of COVID-19 infections as the omicron variant becomes more dominant. Today the USA and France recorded their highest number of daily cases yet. Governments are trying their best to curb the spread, and have got regulations, to that end. 

One of the most basic rules in place is the self-isolation period for those who test positive for COVID-19 and are asymptomatic. Their isolation time, however, differs from place to place. Both the US and the UK had ten-day isolation periods previously. 

Now, the Joe Biden-led government, under Dr Anthony Fauci’s advisement, has decided to slash it to five days. If individuals do not show any symptoms within these five days, they can end the self-isolation. As a precaution, they have to wear masks around others. 

This move comes to avoid essential workers being stuck at home due to a ‘one size fits all’ rule. Fauci clarified, saying, “If you are asymptomatic and you are infected, we want to get people back to their jobs — particularly those with essential jobs — to keep our society running smoothly”. 

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Boris Johnson’s leadership has concluded that a seven day isolation period is sufficient if those infected have two consecutive negative test results. There were further calls to bring it down to five since the National Health Service (NHS) is expected to buckle under the pressure of rising cases.

However, the minister for disabled people, health and work, Chloe Smith, dismissed this saying “There are no current plans in England to change that period. Of course, we have actually only recently taken it down from 10 to seven, and we want to look at that – we want to make sure that that is working as we believe it ought to. We think the current period, therefore, is the right one, so we haven’t any plans to change that further.”

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This is the first time countries have departed from the World Health Organization (WHO) mandated 10-day isolation period. There is data to back up this decision too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) justified that their decision was based on science that demonstrates “the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after.”

When the CDC examined an omicron cluster in Nebraska, they found the incubation time – the period between exposure and infection – was around three days. This is shorter than the four-day period observed in the Delta variant. 

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A similar study in Norway, where dozens were infected, yielded comparable results. The Associate Dean of Public Health at Brown University observed “There is accumulating evidence, for vaccinated people, that if we are asymptomatic we are very unlikely to be infectious after about five to seven days”. Moreover, emerging evidence that omicron is less severe than Delta has also been a motivating factor behind these alterations. 

However, there are some detractors within the medical community. They have posited that there isn’t enough data that supports becoming non-infectious after five days if you’re unvaccinated. Meanwhile, other countries have mostly kept to WHO’s 10-day limit, with some like Germany going up to a 14-day isolation period.