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© KYODOJapan to cut 14-day isolation for Omicron close contacts to 10 days
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the_sicilian
At least someone is thinking that 14 is a bit excessive.
Asiaman7
Will the government’s My SOS app automatically shorten the “quarantine last date” for returnees currently in a 14-day quarantine? Or will it continue to needlessly hound them with recorded video calls, endless “I’m Here” check-ins, and threats of “breaking the pledge” for four additional days? My guess would be the latter.
Jacobo
I am in the same situation. I am reaching all the email addresses written in the many papers we got during the reentry process explaining that following the announcement by the prime minister I have to decide to shorten my period to 10 days and requesting them to change the settings in MySOS and to stop the harassment from the 10th day
Lindsay
Why is Japan always so far behind the rest of the world? If you are a close contact, vaccinated and test negative to a RAT test there is no quarantine in Australia.
SarcasmOnly
Reading this as I am jailed up in a tiny tiny room of a quarantine "hotel" (by the way, it's NOT a hotel. We don't even get towels or a pillow).....
Bah
Tom Doley
Combination of people being adverse to change, incompetent leadership, lack of understanding what digitalisation is, desire to be unique, and belief that the Jway is the best and only way.
purple_depressed_bacon
Because it's Japan and any non-Japanese resource, statement, research, study etc is squinted at with suspicion and skepticism. Honestly, I'm surprised they even allowed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to be used here instead if developing their own since you know, Japanese people's immune systems work differently to everyone else in the world.
This long quarantine is mad. The horror stories about the quarantine hotels, cold meals, and neverending calls to check your whereabouts...prison has more freedom at this point. What's the point of being vaccinated and paying for the PCR tests if you're just going to be subjected to these awful measures?
thelonius
and that is why the government overreacted with a 14 day quarantine in the first place. Don’t forget, this country is ruled and governed by geriatrics. They care not about young people. Look at their policies. That is a fact.
chinpo wo sasageyo
So a doctor in close contact to a patient who tested positive can go ahead and work the next day with a single negative test result but someone coming from gaikoku who isn't even traced to a positive case has to test several times and be kept in detention for 10 days. Iron-clad logic.
gogogo
It's a step in the right direction, but they need to remove other border restrictions as well
stickman1760
There was little legal grounds to force negative pcr people to quarantine. Just a bunch of vague threats but being Japan, they could always find some way to make your life miserable
Chabbawanga
only 10 days of prison now
Gobshite
This is Japan, the land that logic forgot. Try the re-entry process now and you will realise why.
vanityofvanities
Omicron is not frightening. I worry about isolation punishment more.
Asiaman7
Three — prior to arrival, upon arrival, and third day of quarantine (for those quarantining for three days).
shogun36
I thought quarantine was already reduced to 10 days a few weeks? Months? Ago?
Did they raise it back up to 14 again, just so it looks like they are being nice and reducing it back to 10?
therougou
This applies to all countries, not just "omicron" countries. Not sure the reason for the misleading headline.
Quarantine was previously reduced to 10 days if fully vaccinated and tested again, but they scrapped that when omicron was discovered.
Jail time is not affected. That is 3 to 10 days depending on where you visited. Provided you can get home without public transportation....
CanonFolder
I don't know but VIRUS is spreading rapidly in Japan and you are decreasing the quarantine period?
Shouldn't it be the opposite?
Jadded_but_alive
I’m not sure I understand the logic of quarantining coming into country if you test negative.
Why are healthy people being quarantined excessively without a close contact infection?
It doesn’t make logical sense. If someone tests positive on your flight, then fair game.
I had a friend come in from Hawai’i and was tested a total of 4 times producing 4 negative test and still had to quarantine for 2 weeks. Why?
The government lacks fiscal responsibility to quarantine healthy people. These so-called hotels are paid for by taxpayers. If one chooses to travel unnecessarily, they should bore the costs at these facilities.
savethegaijin
I don't know how I feel about this.
For one it definitely seems excessive.
However:
I am currently still in quarantine.
Before I left Japan late-ish in December, I tested negative.
I tested negative mid-trip in the States.
I tested negative the day before I left the States.
I tested negative on the 3rd day in the (awful) quarantine hotel.
Day 6, the day I was due to leave, I had a slight sore throat and tested positive.
I never left the hotel of course, I followed all the rules. I've been (lightly) sick with covid for 4 days now and although I'm nearly cured, I did develop covid symptoms 6 days after I arrived to Japan. I could very well have been one of the few people who develop symptoms late... I could have also gotten it in the hotel but that's beyond the point since yeah, I have covid.
Now, (unless I magically test negative here in 2 days) I will be here for another 8 days. Would have been shorter but the previous hotel people "forgot" I tested positive for a day and a half and didn't move me until I called repeatedly every few hours for a day. When this is all said and done I will have been in quarantine for 19 days. That's if all goes well.
So yeah... either I was one of the rare people who incubate the virus without any being able to be detected in in a PCR test for a week, or I caught it in quarantine - which would be ironic. Not one of the people I spent time with in the US currently has covid (they all tested when I got my positive test) and I was not a close contact of anyone on the plane... I guess I'm just thankful that it's omicron and I'm fully vaccinated else it could have been worse.
So who is to say how long after you are in contact with someone who has covid that you develop symptoms (or a positive pcr)? How careful is too careful?
I will just be very very glad when this is over. All I know is that 19 days is definitely too long.
Aaron J
@purple
i agree, Japan does not look outside it’s borders. It could very well be a language barrier, but I think not.
I think omicron will have washed through Japan before they can adjust attitudes or policy. It certainly won’t be recorded in the reports and the definitions of was is reported won’t ever be transparent to most. It’s unfortunate, but the results, hopefully, will be positive (no pun intended).
CrashTestDummy
My guess is you have to be a Japanese national or permanent resident though. Link to that information?
Asiaman7
@savethegaijin
I'd surmise that it is most likely that you contracted COVID either (1) going through the multi-hour quarantine maze at the airport, or (2) in your hotel room. I'm certain that you were in a line of strangers at the airport, many not social distancing, for many hours. And at the hotel, are they really wiping down the tissue box, TV remote, light buttons, door handles, water boiler, etc.? Perhaps some of that, but probably not all of it.
Good luck!
alex
According to the health ministry (who replied to my request for clarification today), the new quarantine period of 10 days also applies to returnees who are currently doing their 14 days. Although the My SOS app hasn't updated the Quarantine last date yet, I was told by followup@hco.mhlw.go.jp that (provided I feel well) I could go out from the 11th day.
the_sicilian
Test one day before departure (negative)
Tested upon landing at Haneda (negative)
5 days later tested, but no result until 7 days later (negative)Still stuck on the base but I can walk around on the base only so not as bad as the jails (government "hotels") by the airport.
Now, on the other hand, we had a group fly in of 6 a day later, all had a negative to get on the plane, but one tested positive at Narita after landing (and standing for two hours in a crazy line), then one more tested positive 5 days later.
So maybe it's 3 tests, 5 days. Then day 6, as long as the last two are negative you should be good.
Seth M
LindsayToday 08:03 am JST
Why is Japan always so far behind the rest of the world?
Does this "far behind" include covid death tolls? hehe
kurisupisu
Was out in downtown Osaka on Friday and they are packed in the bars like sardines.
Japan doesn’t have to worry about the returnees spreading the virus-Japanese can do that just fine.