On Wednesday evening, Israel’s Health Ministry announced that the period for which an asymptomatic COVID-19 patient will have to be in isolation will now be measured from the time that they took their test and not from when they received their results, as it has been until now.

Head of Public Health Department at the Health Ministry, Dr. Sharon Elrai, published a document that noted that this change will shorten the time Israeli citizens are required to be in isolation by one to three days depending upon whether the date that the corona test was taken is known or not.

This only holds true for patients who are asymptomatic. For patients who display symptoms, Elrai wrote that it is not possible to determine went he onset of the disease occurred, thus,  recovery will be determined as a ten-day period from the date of the test. Assuming that three days have passed since the patient displayed symptoms, they will be allowed to leave isolation.

A nurse will be able to give asymptomatic patients recovery certification, provided that the nurse checked the patient’s computerized medical record and questioned the patient. Whereas, patients who have experienced symptoms, can only receive recovery certification  from a doctor.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)