Quarantine Period Could be Shortened to Three daysChina CDC

Source: Global Times

Good morning everybody

China is mulling whether to further shorten the quarantine period and impose more precise anti-epidemic restrictions, as part of its efforts to optimize the COVID-19 response, health authorities said on Thursday amid Omicron BA.5 subvariant-dominated outbreaks in at least 20 Chinese provinces and regions.

Wang Liping

"We will continue to collect and study new problems and difficulties that locals are facing in dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks in following the ninth COVID-19 prevention playbook, such as whether the quarantine period can be further shortened and low-risk areas can be more precisely classified so as to further update and improve the anti-epidemic measures to minimize the impact of the epidemic prevention and control measures on China's economic and social development and people's lives," Wang Liping, a research fellow at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), said during a Thursday press briefing.
If infected cases can be more easily tracked and quarantined, it is possible to shorten their quarantine period to three days at the minimum, Jin noted.

Jin added that shortening the quarantine period for people entering China will not increase the risk of the spread of the disease
He explained that neither BA.4 nor BA.5 show any big difference from other subvariants in terms of incubation periods.

But data proves that most infected cases with BA.4 or BA.5 are prone to infect others within three days after a positive test, which means it is possible to shorten the quarantine period to three days at a minimum.
A Beijing-based health expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that "the possible adjustment indicates the flexibility of China's anti-epidemic policy. Shortening quarantine period doesn't mean the country is ready to relax its anti-epidemic determination, but is making its anti-epidemic measures more precise."