Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coron...live-with-covid-19-variant-patients-1.5294086
Why is Alberta requiring a 24-day quarantine for those who live with COVID-19 variant patients?
Ryan Flanagan
CTVNews.ca Writer
Published Wednesday, February 3, 2021 1:33PM EST
TORONTO -- Worried that new variants of the novel coronavirus may be spreading more easily between household members, Alberta will now require some close contacts of COVID-19 patients to spend 24 days or more in quarantine.
The new rule, which will leave some Albertans with the longest mandatory quarantine period in Canada, was announced Tuesday by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health.
Federally, the Public Health Agency of Canada requires that individuals quarantine for 14 days if they have had close contact with a COVID-19 patient, are returning from outside the country or have been told to do so by public health authorities, even if they have not tested positive for the virus and do not have any symptoms of it.
In Alberta, as in most of the country, the 14-day period has until now started immediately after a close contact's first exposure. In other words, if somebody tested positive for the virus today, everyone else in their household would have to stay home for the next two weeks.
The problem with that, Hinshaw said, is the mounting evidence that at least some of the new variants can help the virus spread more easily between people.
The new requirement addresses this by moving the start of the 14-day quarantine to the end of the patient's isolation period, which lasts for 10 days – or longer, if symptoms persist -- for household members of variant patients only.
"If cases choose to stay at home during their isolation period, their household contacts will now need to stay at home as well in quarantine until 14 days have passed from the case's isolation period, for a total of 24 days," Hinshaw said at a press briefing.
"We will no longer assess the ability to stay in a different part of the house as adequate for isolation."
WHAT'S BEHIND THIS?...
Why is Alberta requiring a 24-day quarantine for those who live with COVID-19 variant patients?
Ryan Flanagan
CTVNews.ca Writer
Published Wednesday, February 3, 2021 1:33PM EST
TORONTO -- Worried that new variants of the novel coronavirus may be spreading more easily between household members, Alberta will now require some close contacts of COVID-19 patients to spend 24 days or more in quarantine.
The new rule, which will leave some Albertans with the longest mandatory quarantine period in Canada, was announced Tuesday by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health.
Federally, the Public Health Agency of Canada requires that individuals quarantine for 14 days if they have had close contact with a COVID-19 patient, are returning from outside the country or have been told to do so by public health authorities, even if they have not tested positive for the virus and do not have any symptoms of it.
In Alberta, as in most of the country, the 14-day period has until now started immediately after a close contact's first exposure. In other words, if somebody tested positive for the virus today, everyone else in their household would have to stay home for the next two weeks.
The problem with that, Hinshaw said, is the mounting evidence that at least some of the new variants can help the virus spread more easily between people.
The new requirement addresses this by moving the start of the 14-day quarantine to the end of the patient's isolation period, which lasts for 10 days – or longer, if symptoms persist -- for household members of variant patients only.
"If cases choose to stay at home during their isolation period, their household contacts will now need to stay at home as well in quarantine until 14 days have passed from the case's isolation period, for a total of 24 days," Hinshaw said at a press briefing.
"We will no longer assess the ability to stay in a different part of the house as adequate for isolation."
WHAT'S BEHIND THIS?...