Close contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19 variants may need to isolate for up to 24 days, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Tuesday.
“If cases choose to stay home during their isolation period, their household contacts will now need to stay at home as well in quarantine until 14 days have passed from the end of the case’s isolation period, or a total of 24 days,” the chief medical officer of health said at her daily update.
Hinshaw said it has been reported that it is more difficult to effectively quarantine variant cases away from others in a household.
Alberta currently has supports in place for people that need to isolate. They are allowed to stay at select hotels and may be eligible for monetary compensation when that isolation period ends.
Variations of COVID-19 first found in the United Kingdom are believed to spread easily from person to person. Hinshaw said that there have been 57, 50 from the United Kingdom and seven from South Africa, cases of variants of concern in Alberta.
All seven cases from South Africa are related to travel and 35 from the United Kingdom are in returning travellers. A total of six cases are linked to close contacts of travellers. Eight of the 57 cases are not related to travel and are from five different households, Hinshaw said.
