A Longer Quarantine Period May Be Needed for Effective Control of COVID-19 Transmission: Experience From Odisha, India

BackgroundThe novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become pandemic. For effective disease control, quarantine of the infected and exposed cases for an optimal period is critical. Currently, infected individuals are quarantined for 14 days. We tried to check if the quarantine period practiced is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 5; p. e24999
Main Authors:	Das, Manoja K, Nayak, Subham R, Mahapatra, Ashoka, Behera, Kishore K, Hallur, Vinay Kumar
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Palo Alto Cureus Inc 14-05-2022 Cureus
Subjects:	Asymptomatic Coronaviruses COVID-19 Disease transmission Epidemiology/Public Health Fatalities Infections Infectious Disease Polymerase chain reaction Preventive Medicine Quarantine Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 China India
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Summary:	BackgroundThe novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become pandemic. For effective disease control, quarantine of the infected and exposed cases for an optimal period is critical. Currently, infected individuals are quarantined for 14 days. We tried to check if the quarantine period practiced is optimal in the Indian context.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in Odisha, India. We compiled and analyzed the information of 152 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. Descriptive analysis was conducted.ResultsOut of the 152 cases, 80% were males, 9.8% were symptomatic, 66.4% had travel history, and 53.9% had contact with COVID-19 cases. The incubation period ranged from 1-50 days with a median of 19.5 days (IQR: 17-27 days). The median periods were similar according to gender, history of contact, and presence of symptoms. Interestingly, 84.7% of the cases had an incubation period of more than 14 days. To cover 95% and 90% of the individuals, the quarantine period may have to be extended to 38 days and 35 days, respectively.ConclusionA longer observed incubation period (minimum 28 days) suggests the extension of the quarantine period for adults beyond the presently practiced 14 days. Considering the fast-spreading outbreak, an extended quarantine period for 28 days or active periodic follow-up could be more effective.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2168-8184 2168-8184
DOI:	10.7759/cureus.24999