France continues to fight against the highly-infectious Omicron strain but eases the isolation period for vaccinated people, AFP says.
France health minister confirmed on Sunday that the fully immunized people have to quarantine for only seven days instead of ten.
As the top medical official said on Sunday, the fully vaccinated people can also test out of quarantine after five days if they receive a negative rapid antigen or PCR test. In his interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, Olivier Véran added that those unvaccinated will still have to stay in quarantine for 10 days. Of course, they are able to end their self-isolation with a negative test after seven days.
Similar decisions were approved recently by Greece, Spain, England and Ireland. The widespread move to shorten quarantines comes as the fast-spreading Omicron variant causes concerns over worker shortages in key industries.
Commenting on the omicron’s behaviour, Véran warned of the strain’s abilities to hit as fast as possible. “It is very, very contagious,” the top medical official explained, quoting his own prognosis that France could reach 250,000 cases per day by early 2022.
“When we know that we are going to cross the 10 million mark of French people diagnosed positive since the beginning of the pandemic, we understand the extreme contagiousness of Omicron,” the French health minister said on Sunday.
