Shorter quarantine and isolation periods for medics and uniformed services

The Health Ministry informed on Friday about 57,262 new COVID cases and 271 deaths. Deputy chief of the ministry Waldemar Kraska said that day the Delta variant was being replaced by Omicron which, according to the latest data, already constitutes 60% of all cases.

Health Ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz commented on the latest statistics at a press briefing later on Friday. "Today we don't see such increase like we did in the last days. We also observe a slight decrease in a week-to-week dynamic, because it's below the 100% threshold at the moment, but it's still a very high indication. 90% week to week is still a very high indication," he said.

"Given the levels we are currently at - and we're at approx. 60,000 cases daily - this dynamic will most likely decrease. However, these figures can still be higher and we're still expecting surpassing 60,000 daily cases in the coming days," he added.

Speaking about the share of the Omicron found in sequenced samples, Andrusiewicz said this variant was found in 4,340 samples. "It's 52%, taking into account the last 30 days. If we look at the last seven days, the share of Omicron is at 63%" - he said.

"Therefore, we can see that since yesterday the domination of the Omicron variant in Poland has begun, and we're also watching an increasing wave of people reporting for tests," the spokesman said. "Today is yet another day with nearly 180,000 carried out tests, including approx. 50,000 antigen tests," he added.

Andrusiewicz also informed that the ministry has decided to shorten the periods of quarantine and isolation for medics working with patients, and for uniformed services.

"We're hoping that from next Wednesday on, the isolation time after contracting SARS-CoV-2 will be seven days, with an option to take a test after five. If the result is negative, then medics, army persons, police officers, or firefighters would be released from isolation," he explained.

He added that the quarantine period would be shortened to five days. "No need to get tested after that period. If someone wants to be released from quarantine earlier, the medical services have a duty of everyday testing, so no one has to be placed in quarantine," Andrusiewicz said.

"Starting today, every swab point, each laboratory taking swabs for PCR tests, may also do antigen tests. It goes for both public and commercial swab points. (...) From this moment it will be free of charge, financed by the NFZ, and will significantly increase Poland's testing potential," the spokesman stressed.