Omicron Carriers To Quarantine for 14 Days: Israeli Health Ministry

Israel’s Health Ministry is, starting Thursday, requiring a 14-day quarantine for carriers of the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Carriers must be asymptomatic for at least the last three days of their two-week quarantine in order to qualify for a certificate of recovery. Carriers of other coronavirus variants must quarantine for 10 days. “This update is being applied in light of the suspicion that verified carriers of the omicron variant may be contagious for a longer period than observed in cases of other variants,” the ministry said in a statement. There were 755 new confirmed cases in Israel on Wednesday, slightly down from 804 the day before, but the overall trend is one of increasing cases. The seven-day rolling average, which now stands at 589.43, is higher than it has been since November 8. More than half of current cases are in children, according to the Health Ministry. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths from the virus now stands at 1.57, continuing a strong decline from the peak of the last wave, when, on September 14, that figure was 33.29. At least 21 cases of the omicron variant have been confirmed in Israel.