A new Japanese study reveals the infection period of the Omicron variant of Covid 19 is up to six days, which could be a blow to plans to cut the isolation period down to five days.
Data from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases — which conducts disease surveillance in Japan — suggest that the amount of viral RNA is highest between three to six days after diagnosis or symptom onset.
The isolation period for people testing positive for covid-19 was recently cut from 10 days to seven in England if two lateral flow tests returned negative results on days six and seven. Similar cuts to isolation have followed in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Staff absences because of isolation have caused severe workforce shortages for critical services, including the NHS, schools, and transport, leading to calls for the UK to follow the US and cut the isolation period to five days.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that the latest Japanese data “muddy the waters.” and makes evidence more ambiguous - reports the British Medical Journal BMJ
“I’m still working my way through the evidence for and against given that the Japanese study has now shifted the balance,” he said.
Previous studies suggest that the peak transmission period for people with other variants was between two days before symptoms emerged and three days afterward, with virus shedding peaking on or before symptom onset.
The Japanese study suggests that with omicron, the peak of virus shedding may be two or three days later, Hunter said.
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