The Spanish Public Health Commission has been clear, as of Friday, March 4, those people who have close contact with a positive person for COVID-19 will not have to quarantine. This measure had already been taken in June of last year, however, it was only in force for those who were vaccinated against the coronavirus with the full schedule.
However, in the agreement that was approved last Tuesday, the unvaccinated and children are included, who will be able to continue with their daily lives after contact with an infected person. Of course, the directors of Public Health have recommended that precautionary measures be taken against the most vulnerable people, as well as that social interactions be reduced as much as possible during the 10 days following contact with the positive.
This measure completely eliminates the mandatory seven-day quarantine for unvaccinated people and children when they had been less than 15 minutes less than two meters from a person infected with SARS-CoV-2. The decision is especially important in school environments, since it is in the group of children under 12 years of age where the percentage of vaccination is lowest.
Even if quarantines are lifted, it is advised to take extreme precautions against risk groups and reduce social interactions for 10 days
There are currently 1,887,681 children who have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 57.4%, and 605,123 have received the complete schedule, corresponding to only 18.4%. The approval of this change in quarantine means that the protocols in Infant and Primary schools also have to change where, until now, entire classes were being isolated if there were more than four children with COVID-19.
A measure based on good vaccination data
As explained by the Public Health Commission, the decision to end quarantines after contacts with positives is motivated by the “high levels of immunity reached in the Spanish population. Both due to the high vaccination coverage and the large number of infections, the characteristics of the omicron variant that is currently circulating, and the greater performance of diagnostic tests, have contributed to the change in the epidemiological characteristics and the behavior of the epidemic in the recent wave”.
It is important to emphasize that this measure does not change the issue of isolation in positive cases, which should avoid contact with anyone for seven days, in cases of asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, and a minimum of 21 days for those who have developed the disease. severely ill or who are immunosuppressed, according to the Strategy for Early Detection, Surveillance and Control of COVID-19.
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