WHO shortens quarantine period to 7 days for COVID-19 exposed people amid decline in cases

The World Health Organization on Thursday reduced the recommended quarantine period for people exposed to COVID-19. Those who test negative for Coronavirus can now end their quarantine after seven days instead of 14.

In cases where shortening the quarantine duration is not possible, it may be ended after 10 days without testing, the WHO said. This will only be done if the person who was exposed to COVID-19 shows no symptoms.

The new regulation comes at a time when several nations across the world are easing lockdown curbs. 

Travel restrictions have been eased in several European nations and many countries have shortened their quarantine period. In Estonia and Iceland, quarantine duration has been reduced to seven days while Slovenia has shortened its quarantine time to five days. 

The Norwegian government has already lifted its final Coronavirus restrictions after it scrapped all the social distancing measures and ended mask mandate in public spaces. Several other European nations are planning on easing the curbs, with Spain, becoming the first European country to move towards ending mask mandates. Austria, Switzerland, and Germany have too announced plans to lift most COVID-19 curbs.

Restrictions in the Netherlands have also been eased and non-essential stores, hairdressers, and gyms are now be allowed to reopen.

WHO: New COVID cases drop by 19% globally

The UN health body had recently stated that the number of new Coronavirus cases globally had fallen by 19% in the last week while the number of deaths remained stable. The WHO in its weekly report on the pandemic said that just over 16 million new COVID-19 infections and about 75,000 deaths were reported worldwide last week.

The Western Pacific was the only region to report a rise in new weekly cases, an increase of about 19% while Southeast Asia reported a decrease of about 37% - the biggest drop globally. Meanwhile, the number of fatalities rose by 38% in the Middle East and by about one-third in the Western Pacific.

The biggest rise in COVID-19 cases was seen in Russia. Cases there and elsewhere in Eastern Europe doubled in recent weeks, driven by a surge of the hugely infectious omicron variant.

In India, 30,757 fresh Coronavirus cases with 67,538 recoveries and 541 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Health Ministry data. Total recoveries have increased to 4,19,10,984 and the recovery rate stands at 98.03%.