Quarantine and isolation in Montenegro reduced from 21 to 14 days

Photo: Tanjug/DIMITRIJE NIKOLIC

The National Coordination Body for Infectious Diseases (NKT) in Montenegro has decided to reduce the time of self-isolation and institutional isolation from the now prescribed 21 to 14 days.

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The decision was made on the proposal of the Institute of Public Health, in line with international recommendations and practice that is already in force in most European Union countries, in the UK, the US, Japan, reports Vijesti.

"The latest scientific evidence indicates that the infectivity of the sick is significantly shorter than originally thought and that patients are contagious a day or two before the onset of symptoms, that the infectivity increases with the onset of symptoms, that it is greatest during the first two days of symptoms and disappears during the first ten days of the disease in patients with mild symptoms," the NKT said in its announcement.

The contagiousness of asymptomatic cases, it is added, clearly lasts even shorter.

"This indicates that patients who did not have symptoms, and in whom at least 14 days have passed since taking a sample for a test that returned positive, do not pose a danger to their environment and therefore there is no need for their self-isolation after 14 days," explains NKT.

The self-isolation measure is no longer needed for persons whose 14-day self-isolation period has expired on the day this measure enters into force, and who have not had any symptoms or signs of infection for at least three days.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)