Close contacts of those infected with Covid no longer have to quarantine

The Public Health Commission, which consists of the Ministry of Health of Spain and the regional health authorities, have agreed that anyone who is a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid, no longer has to self isolate regardless of their vaccination status.

As announced by the Ministry of Health at the end of the meeting, this will come into force from Saturday March 5th, and means that family members, friends, and partners of someone who has tested positive can go about their lives as normal.

However, they do recommend that you still act responsibly and “reduce social interactions as much as possible, and continue to wear your mask and maintaining social distancing when in the company of the positive person, and washing your hands as much as possible to reduce the chance of catching and passing on the virus.

These quarantines had already been eliminated for vaccinated people a few months ago, although the Ministry of Health recommended limiting their activities outside the home for 10 days after the last contact with a confirmed case, and insisted on the "constant" use of the mask.

But now, with 91.1% of the Spanish population over 12 years of age vaccinated, it is expected that this measure will benefit, above all, the 3.3 million minors between the ages of 5 and 11 in Spain, where there are still low vaccination rates.

Vaccination only began for this age group two months ago, on December 15th and, precisely for this reason, and because the interval between the first and second doses is 8 weeks, only 547,702 children in Spain have been fully vaccinated so far (16.7% of those under 12 years of age). As for the first dose, according to the latest vaccination report, a total of 1,878,352 children in Spain (57.1%), which includes the Canary Islands.