Czech Health Ministry may reduce COVID-19 quarantine from 14 to 10 days

Some countries have lowered their COVID-19 quarantine duration following studies; Czech health officials may do the same

Jason Pirodsky

Written by Jason Pirodsky Published on 11.08.2020 13:13:08 (updated on 11.08.2020) Reading time: 2 minutes

Daily News
A woman in home COVID-19 quarantine via iStock / martin-dm
A woman in home COVID-19 quarantine via iStock / martin-dm

As countries around the world enter the sixth month of dealing with COVID-19, approaches towards preventing its spread have begun changing.

In recent weeks, the United States and several European countries including Switzerland, Norway, and Czech neighbor Austria have issued either guidance or official regulation that has lowered the length of a stay in COVID-19 quarantine from two weeks to ten days.

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While the incubation period of the virus is 14 days, CDC studies in the US have shown that in those with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 it is no longer able to replicate after 10 days. Even among those with severe cases, in 88% of them the virus was no longer able to replicate after 10 days (that number goes up to 95% after 15 days).

Currently, Czech health officials are discussing whether to lower their official guidelines for quarantine and lower the duration to ten days as well.

“I would also be in favor of reducing quarantine,” Chief Hygienist Jarmila Rážová recently told iDnes.cz.

“Nevertheless, it is really a matter of a very serious professional discussion between clinicians and epidemiologists. There are still quite a few cases on the tenth day and the incubation period of the virus is fourteen days.”

According to Rážová, a consensus recommendation from hygienists and epidemiologists is expected to be presented to the Czech Health Ministry later this month. Based on their findings, the Ministry may then lower the quarantine stay from 14 to 10 days.

“Available data and first-hand knowledge from the Czech Republic regarding the duration of virus survival in the nasopharynx of patients have shown that the virus is viable for eight to ten days on the mucous membranes of most patients,” Roman Chlíbek, a member of the Clinical Group at the Czech Health Ministry, told iDnes.cz.

Currently, anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 in the Czech Republic must quarantine for 14 days.

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They are free to leave quarantine after that period, even if they continue to test positive for the virus, as long as they do not display symptoms.

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