No quarantine for close contacts if boosted and asymptomatic

 

COVID-19 | Close contacts of Covid-19 patients will no longer be required to undergo quarantine if they have received their booster shots and show no symptoms of the disease, under new rules that will come into effect next month.

Beginning March 1, such persons will instead be merely required to undergo a Covid-19 self-test on the first day and third day after their last exposure with the Covid-19 patient.

If the test result is negative, they are allowed to go about their daily lives. Otherwise, they must report the positive test result through MySejahtera and undergo the seven-day isolation period for Covid-19 cases.

Quarantine rules for other categories of close contacts remain unchanged.

The new rules were announced by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin at a press conference in Putrajaya today, which was also streamed live on the internet.

“This is also a step towards (treating the disease) as endemic; meaning that we have yet to reach the endemic phase, but with our high vaccination rate, rising booster coverage, and the decoupling of daily cases with Covid-19 effects, the Health Ministry feels based on risk assessments that this is a policy that can be introduced now for managing the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Asked about the rationale of the decision and the risk of asymptomatic transmission of the disease, the minister said there are still some safeguards in place – namely the requirement for testing on Day 1 and Day 3.

Close contacts will also be asked to use MySejahtera’s home assessment tool, where users will be asked whether they are experiencing Covid-19 symptoms.

“If they are positive or have been infected by the index case, we find that with the Omicron variant, its incubation period is three days.

“(By then) they will either show symptoms or be detected as positive (through testing),” he said.

In addition, data on previous Covid-19 variants have shown that fully vaccinated individuals have a lower viral load in their bodies, and the Health Ministry assumes the same is occurring with individuals who have received their booster shots who later contract the Omicron variant.

A lower viral load is associated with a reduced likelihood of transmitting the disease.

“Of course, this approach has undergone the Health Ministry’s risk assessment, and we find that if they have no symptoms, chances are they have a low viral load,” he said. - Mkini