Coronavirus self-isolation and quarantine reduced to ten days in Wales from Thursday

From Thursday December 10th the time people have to self-isolate for coronavirus will be reduced from 14 days to ten in Wales.

Reducing the isolation period to ten days is endorsed by The Chief Medical Officer for Wales Officer, Dr Frank Atherton and Welsh Government say is “based on the current available evidence around likelihood of being infectious as a contact after ten days”.

Following this advice the Minister for Health and Social Services has approved the amendment to the Health Protection regulations for Wales.

Travellers returning from non-exempt countries will now only have to quarantine for ten days instead of 14 as part of changes to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (Wales) Regulations 2020).

At present, individuals who are contacts of people who have coronavirus and returning travellers from non-exempt countries, are required by law to self-isolate for a period of 14 days – unless they subsequently test positive and are then required to isolate for a period of 10 days from the date of the positive test.

The new self-isolation and quarantine advice will apply to:

• people who have received a positive test result for COVID-19
• people with symptoms of COVID-19 who are waiting for a test result, or who have not been tested and do not require hospital treatment, who must remain at home for the appropriate self-isolation period.
• people living in households with someone who shows symptoms that may be caused by COVID-19 or who has received a positive test result for COVID-19
  close contacts of positive cases of COVID-19
• Travellers returning from non-exempt country

Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething, said: “We know that self-isolating is hard for people and we believe families, communities and business will welcome the announcement today to safely reduce the days in which people have to isolate.

“Self-isolation and quarantine play a key role in stopping the spread of the coronavirus and I want to thank everyone who continues to follow the rules and play their role in Keeping Wales Safe.”

The NHS COVID-19 app which provides a countdown timer to keep track of how long people need to self-isolate for will update users in Wales to the new 10 day system from the 17th of December.