As part of his epidemiologic brief held this Thursday February 18, 2021, French Health Minister Olivier Véran has announced coronavirus positive cases' quarantine is to be enhanced. From this moment on, the duration of the self isolation period moves from 7 to 10 days, as France seems to have reached a high plateau and the country is still faced with the spread of game-changing variants. The reason? Variants are said to have a contagiousness duration higher than the historic strain.
Even though two-week quarantine is generally recommended (but not compulsory) to people infected by coronavirus, the French government yet deciced on September 11, 2020 on reducing this isolation period from 14 to 7 days, as the Scientific Committee suggested. Véran then recommended "not to take a test right away" but "remain in self-isolation for 7 days and then take a test after the 7 days of self-isolation". It was then recommended to stay home for 7 days after the onset of symptoms, 7 days after a test is positive, and 7 days after being in contact with a positive case, and take a test after the 7 days.
Some scientific studies said most coronavirus recipients contaminate people in the first five days following the breakout of symptoms. Therefore, a 7-day quarantine should be enough to curb the spread of coronavirus. Yet, at that time, variants were still not part of the game amid the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.
