Military personnel perform Covid-19 contact tracing work. EFE

Contacts of those infected by the Omicron variant in Spain must self-isolate, even if fully jabbed

The Ministry of Health has also established a ten-day quarantine period for those who have had contact with suspected cases

ÁLVARO SOTO

Wednesday, 1 December 2021, 17:40 | Updated 18:36h.

Vaccinated people who have had contact with someone infected by the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Spain will have to quarantine for ten days.

Until now, the close contacts of a positive Covid-19 infection case did not need to self-isolate if they had received the complete vaccination guideline, but fear of the new variant has pushed the national Ministry of Health to toughen its measures.

In fact, people who have in contact with a suspected case of Omicron, even if it is not confirmed, must also self-isolate.

“Confirmation of the type of variant is not usually available at the time of diagnosis, so this measure should also be applied to those cases in which there is suspicion - either due to preliminary information through specific PCR or because the case is part of an outbreak that includes cases produced by these variants," says the Ministry of Health in the latest update its 'Strategy for early detection, surveillance and control of Covid-19'.

Individual room

The department, headed by Carolina Darias, considers a “close contact” of the infected person to be members of the same household and, in general, “any person who has been in the same place as a case, at a distance of less than two metres and for a period of time exceeding more than 15 minutes in a 24-hour period”

The quarantine period must be observed at home, "preferably in an individual room", and the affected person should not leave the property.