When does a person with COVID-19 stop being contagious?

In Argentina, the latest health recommendations for positive cases COVID-19 Refer to five days of isolation from the date onset of symptoms (or diagnosis in asymptomatic cases).

However, a number of studies confirm that many infected people continue to transmit the virus for up to two weeks after symptoms first appear. That is, many infected people can spread the virus After up to ten days Onset of symptoms.

Hence the recommendations after the isolation days Maximum care measures for 10 days. That is, wearing a mask permanently over the face and covering the nose, mouth, and chin, ventilating rooms appropriately, and washing your hands more frequently — more than ever — when coughing or sneezing into the bend of the elbow.

The coronavirus is characterized by being transmissible even before the symptoms appear on the infected person, and in general, the peak period of virus spread begins approximately one or two days before the onset of symptoms and continues after two or three days.

Although a person is less likely to transmit the virus later in the course of an illness, it is still possible. according to study Posted in New England Journal of MedicinePeople continue to shed virus that can be grown in a lab, which is a good test of virus transmissibility, for an average of eight days after testing positive.

Other work, conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine, found that 30% of patients went on to test positive on a rapid test for antigens Ten days after infection was confirmed by a molecular test for PCR sensitive.

At this point, an important fact is that PCR tests for COVID-19 can give a positive result even when the person is not infectious. This is likely to occur when the tests detect viral RNA and capture non-infectious debris remaining after most of the live virus has been removed. In contrast, collateral flow (or ‘rapid antigen’) tests provide better guidance on infection, because they detect proteins produced by the active replicating virus.

Hence, experts say that a positive test does not mean that a person inevitably passes the virus on to someone else. Moreover, most of them agree that transition After ten days is very unlikely, even if the person still tests positive.

In this sense, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines suggest that patients self-isolate for at least five days. On the sixth day, isolation can end As long as your symptoms improve and you haven’t had a fever for at least 24 hours without taking fever-reducing medication.

A confusing point for some is that the US body states that the first day of isolation is the day after you start feeling symptoms or get a positive result. So, for example, if someone starts with a sore throat on Monday afternoon, that’s Day 0 and Tuesday is Day 1.

So said scientist Amy Barczak, an infectious disease specialist Massachusetts General Hospitalin Boston, United States, it was suggested that a quarter of people infected with the omicron variant of the Corona virus – which today prevails in all parts of the world – can continue to live. infectious after eight days.

According to Barczak, “the data on the duration of infection has not really changed.” According to the researcher, who posted her work on the MedRxiv server, there is no data to support five or just under ten days of isolation for COVID-19 patients. He concluded, “It is very unusual for people to still be contagious after ten days.”

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