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Jerusalem, Jan 11 (EFE) .- The Israeli Ministry of Health announced today that those who obtain positive results in coronavirus tests will be able to isolate themselves for seven days instead of ten if they do not present symptoms from the fifth day.
“We will not force people to remain in quarantine longer than necessary, to protect their health, as well as the economy, education, culture and continue with a normal life as much as possible in parallel with the coronavirus,” said the minister of Health, Nitzán Horowitz.
The decision was announced in a statement from the ministry, which specified that a study carried out in patients with the omicron variant revealed that only 6% showed signs of the virus following the seventh day.
“We decided to reduce the number of days in isolation following examining the issue and identifying that the chances of infection last week are low,” explained Health Director General Nachman Ash.
This measure comes at a time of growing concern in Israel over the difficulties that the isolation of virus carriers has caused in the labor market, something that some experts predict will generate losses of more than 500 million euros.
The latest figures of infections released today by Health indicate that almost 38,000 new cases were registered yesterday, the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic and that raised the number of active cases to more than 185,000, 247 of them in serious condition.
In this context, the Prime Minister, Naftali Benet, offered a press conference today in which he assured that the Government will seek to keep the economy running despite infections and that the priority will be to protect the elderly and patients at risk.
(c) EFE Agency