Home Quarantine Now Allowed for Variant COVID Cases

Beginning July 20, all local COVID-19 patients carrying Omicron variants BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.4, as well as close contacts of patients may undergo isolation and quarantine at home, according to Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre of Health Protection’s Communicable Disease Branch.

In a daily COVID-19 press briefing made yesterday (July 20) via a government news portal, Dr. Chuang announced that after analysing more than 1,000 local cases carrying the Omicron sub-lineage variants, the centre found that the severity of all three subvariants was similar to other variants circulating in the community.

Starting yesterday, local COVID-19 patients suspected to be carrying the sub-lineages BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 under the Omicron mutant strain as well as their close contacts may begin isolation and quarantine at home if they fulfil the relevant requirements.

“The World Health Organization also noted that there is no severity signal among the BA.5 subvariant,” said Dr. Chuang.

“The BA.5 subvariant has a growth advantage over other subvariants but we have not observed any increase in severity among those patients suffering from it,” she added.