Should vaccinated people be quarantined for close contact with a case of COVID-19?

A person is considered immune to COVID-19 if 15 days have passed since the second dose, if it is a two-shot vaccine, as well as three weeks for single-regimen preparations. “Then there will be people for whom vaccination doesn’t work. But as we do not measure the immune response in all people who have been vaccinated, we must remain cautious because these cases can infect and infect some vaccinated people ”, notes in an interview with Infosalus Dr. Yvelise Barrios, member of the Council of ‘Administration of the Spanish Society of Immunology (SEI).

Currently Spain, for example, exempts people who have overcome the disease in the past six months from being in close contact with COVID. Now nothing is established for people who have been vaccinated in the past six months.

Among the experts, he acknowledges that there is still a controversy on this aspect: “As it is not known how long the immunity acquired by the vaccine lasts, the most reasonable thing in these cases would be for people vaccinated to 100 % who have had close contact with someone infected for SARS CoV-2, an antigen test was done to make sure everything is under control ”.

In the coming weeks, the expert also from the Canary Islands University Hospital (San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Tenerife) says that the time will be reduced to be sure of the number of months of immunity conferred by vaccines, or of the duration that we are going to consider. whether these quarantines should be absent or not.

The doctor specializing in immunology recognizes that vaccination will allow us to have more lax standards and here she remembers the document recently released by the North American CDC in this regard, and which establishes that people who have had close contact with a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 do not need to remain in quarantine if they meet all of these criteria:

1.- They are fully vaccinated (two weeks or more after the second dose).

2.- They are found within three months of receiving the last dose of the vaccination schedule.

3.- They have remained asymptomatic since the patient’s current exposure to COVID-19

Now Dr Barrios warns these are recommendations from a country, the United States, with a high percentage of vaccinated: “The situations are not equivalent, so the recommendations cannot be extrapolated, although they can serve as an example of what we can achieve when we increase vaccination rates in Spain, as well as to know what consequences they have “.

At this point, remember that from today, it is not known with 100% certainty whether vaccinated people can infect. For this reason, he defends that, even if he is vaccinated, all the measures implemented to fight against the pandemic (use of a mask, ventilation, hand washing and distancing) must continue to be managed.

Of course, Barrios argues that scientific studies that come from countries with higher age group vaccination indicate that there may be a decrease in infections due to the vaccine.

“What we can dare is that if a correct immune response has been produced after vaccination, our system will significantly hinder the replication of the virus in the body, and by having a smaller amount of the virus, although these people are infected, they will be. less able to infect anothers. The practical evidence is not there yet, but the data indicates in this regard. We have to be careful and we should keep these measures that work until we have a greater proportion of vaccinated and information on the issue, ”explains the member of the SEI.

The CDC document also establishes that, if at a meeting in an indoor area, everyone present is vaccinated and they meet 15 days after the second dose, they can remove the mask and dispense with the aforementioned restrictions. “What is not so clear is that if we are vaccinated and there are people who are not vulnerable, we should stay with the mask or not. There is still controversy, even if they are not vulnerable if they are not vaccinated, ”he admits.

With information from Europa Press

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