Doctors and public health officers will decide on the isolation based on the risk assessment of those that tested positive, according to the new proposal of the Czech Health Ministry. Photo: Brno Olympia vaccination centre. Credit: KK for Brno Daily.
Prague, Feb 24 (CTK) – The Czech Health Ministry proposes that the seven-day isolation not be automatically imposed on all people tested positive for COVID-19, and that doctors and public health officers decide on it based on their risk assessment, according to the ministry’s draft directive released on its website for comments.
The ministry does not state when this change would take effect.
The ministry argues that such a change also reflects the practice in other countries.
In its report to justify the proposal, the Health Ministry writes that at present, there is enough information available about the main epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 and that the population has already gained certain immunity to the infection by having undergone it or being vaccinated.
Thus it is realistic to assess the level of risks of a further spread of the infection mainly in connection with the health condition of the assessed persons and their close surroundings as well as the character of their occupation, the ministry writes.
A higher risk level is, for instance, in the case of workers at healthcare and inpatient social facilities. Besides, the possibility to wear a respirator at work plays a role in assessing the risk level.
The isolation and quarantine conditions were changing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first infected persons were strictly isolated in hospitals. The isolation first lasted 14 days and all contacts of the infected person had to be quarantined.
At present, a person with a positive result of either a PCR or antigen test for COVID-19 carried out by healthcare personnel must stay in a seven-day isolation. Its violation may be qualified as a criminal offence of spreading an infectious disease, for which one faces a prison sentence.
However, the Health Ministry is of the view that isolation as the strictest anti-epidemic measure need not be required in all cases. It refers to the situation in the country as well as the global trend of the COVID-19 incidence development and the assessment of the current impacts of this disease on the population of the Czech Republic.
Since the March 1, 2020 outbreak of the COVID epidemic, about 4,606,824 coronavirus infection cases have been confirmed in the 10.5-million Czech Republic, including reinfections.
The number of COVID cases has been rising again in the past few weeks. The Monday figure of 1,832 has been the highest daily rise since the end of last October. The number of COVID hospitalised approached 700 this week, it was higher last time at the end of 2022. However, only a few dozen COVID patients are in a serious condition.
About 6.9 million people have been fully vaccinated against the virus in the country, some 4.4 million also received the first booster jab and roughly 796,000 got the second as well.
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