A Reader wrote in an email to the editorial office:
Please look into the matter of quarantine and isolation. Recently, people have been receiving COVID test results even 10 days after their swabs were collected. The sanitary inspection directs such people to isolate for 10 days, but starting from the day they receive the result, which means isolation for at least 20 days!
And added:
Why does the sanitary inspection impose isolation or quarantine starting from the day the result is received? People have already been confined at home for 10 days and are supposed to stay another 10 days even without symptoms????
We asked the sanitary inspection in Bolesławiec for comment. Here is the response:
In response to your request of 10 November 2020, I inform you that the rules for undergoing quarantine and isolation by a person diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection are regulated by the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 9 October 2020 on the establishment of certain restrictions, orders and prohibitions in connection with the occurrence of an epidemic (Journal of Laws 2020, item 1758, dated 9 October 2020).
The above provisions indicate that a person diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection, from the day a positive diagnostic test result for SARS-CoV-2 is obtained, is subject to mandatory isolation at home, unless that person has been directed to an isolation facility or hospitalized (§ 3a point 4).
Furthermore, a person sharing a household with or living with a person diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection from the day the person diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection obtains a positive diagnostic test result for SARS-CoV-2is required to undergo quarantine lasting until seven days after the isolation of the person with whom they share a household or live has ended. No decision by the sanitary inspection authority is issued (§ 3a point 4a).