Ministry of Health reduces quarantine for asymptomatic people with Covid from 10 to 5 days

The Ministry of Health decided to reduce the time of isolation of people with Covid in Brazil.

The recommendation is now to isolate from seven to ten days for people who have symptoms and five to seven days for those who are asymptomatic.

Last week, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said that the portfolio could reduce isolation.

When talking about this possibility, the minister mentioned that the CDC (United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has already given this recommendation.

The indication of the Ministry of Health is that the asymptomatic person stays at home for at least five days in isolation. After that time it must be tested. With the positive test, you should be in isolation until the 10th day.

It is not necessary to test the asymptomatic, however, to come out of isolation after the seventh day.

For symptomatic patients, isolation is at least seven days. The person needs to be tested at the end of the period. If the result is negative, she can leave isolation. With a positive result, she must remain in isolation until the tenth day.

“Our isolation is for at least seven days. However, if on the fifth full day the patient has no symptoms, no respiratory symptoms, no fever and no use of antipyretic medication for at least 24 hours, he can test on the fifth day”, said Arnaldo Medeiros, secretary of Health Surveillance at the Ministry of Health.

Medeiros said that people who come out of isolation before the 10th day should keep some additional recommendations, such as avoiding travel, contact with people with comorbidity.

“[A pessoa deve] keep the additional recommendations until the 10th day, such as avoiding agglomerations, contacts with people with comorbidity, use of non-pharmacological measures until the 10th day to be calm”, he said.

The new rules take place amid Covid-19 cases due to the omicron variant. Queiroga said that Brazil follows the example of some countries in which the increase in cases has not increased the number of deaths.

“Without a doubt, the omicron variant causes a much higher number of cases, but fortunately we do not have a correspondence of the number of deaths. Will it always be like this? We don’t know”, pointed out the minister.

THE GUIDELINES OF THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH

5 days isolation

• No symptoms: on the fifth day, if the patient has no respiratory symptoms, no fever and no use of antipyretic drugs, for at least 24 hours
• Testing: on the fifth day with RT-PCR or TR-Ag
• Negative result: come out of isolation after five full days and stick to the recommendations until the tenth day
• Positive result: maintain isolation for up to ten full days

7 days isolation

• No symptoms: on the seventh day, if the case has no respiratory symptoms, no fever and no use of antipyretic drugs, for at least 24 hours
• Testing: no need to test to get out of isolation
• End of isolation: come out of isolation after seven full days and stick to the recommendations until the tenth day

7 days isolation

• With symptoms: Symptomatic people who on the seventh day do not have respiratory symptoms, fever and do not use antipyretic drugs for at least 24 hours
• Testing with RT-PCR or TR-Ag
• With a positive test result, maintain isolation until the tenth day

10 days isolation

• No symptoms: on the tenth day, if the case has no respiratory symptoms, no fever and no use of antipyretic drugs, for at least 24 hours
• No need to test to get out of isolation
• Leave isolation on the tenth day and maintain non-pharmacological measures

Source: Ministry of Health