www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/world/africa/south-africa-covid-quarantine.htmlS. Africa ends quarantine for asymptomatic cases and contact tracing requirements:
South Africa’s government, buoyed by encouraging data showing that infections from the Omicron variant aren’t as severe, has dropped quarantine restrictions for all but symptomatic people.
That includes allowing people who have tested positive but show no symptoms to gather with others, so long as they wear a mask and social distance. A top health official explained that since the variant spreads so quickly, there are likely many infected people socializing with others and it no longer made sense to quarantine only those who have tested themselves.
The move was yet another step toward a slow acceptance that many countries around the world will likely need to find a way to live with Covid, rather than avoid it. The new measures follow recommendations from a committee of experts who called for focusing on vaccinations rather than contact tracing and quarantining.
“There is greater recognition that, in the face of a hyper-contagious variant like this, quarantining and isolation are no longer effective as public health containment measures to contain the virus,” said Professor Francois Venter, a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a former member of the committee.
The new protocols go into effect immediately, the health ministry said in a notice to local health department heads. The revisions were based on data showing that immunity resulting from previous infections was as high as 80 percent. That, coupled with a vaccination rate of nearly 45 percent among adults in the country, has kept hospitalizations lower, the South African government said.
...
____________________
