People who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 won’t have to isolate if they are a close contact to someone who tests positive, the Health Ministry says.
“People vaccinated against COVID-19 who are a contact with a person positive for SARS-CoV-2, will be considered low risk and will not have to perform isolation,” Costa Rican authorities said Monday.
“This is established in the update of the National Guidelines for the Surveillance of COVID-19 disease, in its version 18.”
The isolation exemption applies when the person in question:
- Has received the complete vaccination schedule for COVID-19 (two doses) within the last 90 days.
- Has surpassed 14 days after receiving the second dose.
- Has no symptoms.
For the time being, the guidelines say that people who finished the vaccine schedule more than 90 days before a close contact will have to isolate, since “the protection time offered by the vaccine is not yet clear.”
“As the scientific evidence regarding the scope of the protection conferred by the vaccines is published, the corresponding changes will be made to the guidelines,” the Health Ministry explained.
Costa Rica has administered more than 200,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
