Quarantine
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Researchers confirmed that 14-day quarantine period applied by most of the health officials across the globe is appropriate while the average incubation period is five days according to a recently published article.

One of the most favorite lines of most of the health officials in this time of global pandemic is to "Quarantine yourself for 14 days," most especially if a person has a travel history in countries with confirmed cases of COVID-19 like China, Italy, and United States or have close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19.

LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF 14-DAY QUARANTINE

Lindsay Wiley, a professor at American University's Washington, said: "Fourteen days is not a made-up number here - it's based on what we know so far about COVID-19, and it's possible that over time we'll see that number change as we learn more [about the virus]."

The 14-day quarantine is not just a number that was crafted by one health organization and was later adopted by different health organizations across the globe. This is part of the guidelines that different health organizations around the world decided, through research, is appropriate.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States sets its guidelines and as well as its counterparts abroad. The guidelines were well accepted and recommended by the World Health Organization.

In fact, the implementation of a 14-day quarantine in some other countries is very stringent. Either a person is symptomatic or asymptomatic he or she needs to go in a 14-day quarantine period. Once a person stops the quarantine period without approval from a health official, he or she will have to face legal sanctions such as "Breach of Quarantine Protocol."

WHY 14 DAYS? WHY NOT 5 OR 10?

There is a scientific basis why the 14-day quarantine period was adapted instead of 5 or 10 days. This number of days was not just created based on what is practiced but this is based on the data gathered and how fast the manifestations of the new virus are.

If a person gets infected by the virus, it takes time or days before it will make enough copies to itself then the host (person) begins to cough and sneeze which are the common symptoms of COVID-19. That's also the time that the transmission starts if proper coughing and sneezing etiquette are not observed.

According to the virologist at the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Public Health Rachel Graham, the incubation period varies from virus to virus and sometimes from host to host.

In a research report from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, persons who encountered patients who tested positive for COVID-19 start to develop symptoms between 5 and 12 days. Based on the data gathered from 181 cases by the researchers, the average incubation period of COVID-19 is five days.

However, they also found out that 97 percent of infected persons who develop symptoms need to quarantine themselves for 11. 5 days. This means that the 14-day quarantine period established and set by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is appropriate.

This is also supported by another study published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, where it says that the typical incubation period is five days while 97 percent of those who developed symptoms need to quarantine from 5 to 12 days.

This means that if you are done with the 14-day quarantine period and have not developed any symptoms related to COVID-19, you are now considered safe and are now outside the safety margin. However, this does not mean that you will stop practicing proper hygiene and social distancing. Remember that as long as the virus is still around, anyone can be infected.

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