Prof. Nachman Ash, the director-general of the Health Ministry, has authorized a shortened period of quarantine for confirmed COVID-19 carriers. From now onward, people with a coronavirus diagnosis will only be required to self-isolate for seven days, if the last three days of the seven are asymptomatic.
Over the past few weeks, Health Ministry employees have been engaged in laboratory tests on around 80 Omicron cases, using PCR testing to assess the replication of the virus. From the tests, it emerged that the chances of replicating the virus after seven days are very low, around six percent - of 15 cultures that were tested after seven days of infection, just one remained positive. The data were presented to the government's coronavirus taskforce which then issued a recommendation to shorten the mandatory quarantine period from 10 days to seven.
Professor Ash then authorized the new policy, with a caveat that if a confirmed carrier still has symptoms after the fourth day, he must complete the full 10 days of quarantine.
The new policy will go into force on Wednesday at midnight.