Russia to shorten COVID-19 isolation period to 7 days

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities say the government is shortening the required isolation period for people infected with the coronavirus from 14 to seven days. The decision was announced Tuesday as Russia faces a surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who runs the country’s coronavirus task force, said other policy changes would be adopted in the coming days. She didn’t elaborate on what the changes might be. She also didn’t explain the rationale for cutting the isolation period. Russian officials have sounded the alarm about the surge having the potential to be the country’s biggest yet but so far haven’t announced any restrictions to stem it.