PEOPLE who display symptoms of Coronavirus must self-isolate for a minimum of 10 days, the UK’s four chief medical officers say.
The increase from seven days comes as ministers try to avoid a resurgence of the virus in the UK and the North of Ireland.
There is a concern that as lockdown has eased, people are starting to drop their guard believing the pandemic is over.
But countries across the world are already starting to see spikes in fresh cases such as the USA, Australia and countries across Europe.
The medical officers are issuing the advice based on new evidence that people with mild to moderate symptoms may still be infectious days after the onset of the virus.
People are most infectious before symptoms begin displaying and during the first few days of the illness.
But scientists say there is a possibility some people may still transmit the virus for up to nine days after they become unwell.
The new advice brings the UK in line with guidance issued by the World Health Organisation.
The North of Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride, says the evidence has “strengthened” to support extending the period of self-isolation for those who test positive for COVID-19 from seven to 10 days.
He says it shows that people with COVID-19 who are mildly symptomatic and recovering “have a low but still a real possibility of infectiousness between seven and nine days after illness onset”.
“Now is the time to make that change, particularly as we move into autumn and winter and want to keep levels of COVID-19 massively suppressed.”
Questions have been asked as to why the change had not been introduced much sooner.
Dr McBride said: “We’ve always said we’d keep the evidence under review and update our advice as this novel virus emerges.
“If we look across the world, different countries have the same evidence and taken different approaches.
“It’s a balance of weighing up the evidence versus the benefits.”
Health chiefs continue to urge the public to maintain a social distance of two metres as much as possible and wash hands regularly to prevent the spread of the virus.
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