Public health authority THL announced on Thursday that quarantine after a Covid diagnosis can be reduced to five days.

The duration of quarantine and isolation as prescribed by an infectious disease physician following a Covid diagnosis has been ten days, but health officials say that is no longer necessary.

As a result of the Omicron mutation the virus cycle has accelerated and the duration of a longer quarantine is no longer justified, THL's chief physician Otto Helve explained at a briefing on Thursday morning.

In the new instructions to physicians, a doctor can prescribe a five- to ten-day quarantine, depending on the needs of the individual patient. If there is no need for longer quarantine, a doctor can prescribe an isolation period of five days, Helve continued.