Fever-free for two days and stay at home for at least seven days after you became ill with covid-19. These are some of the guidelines that the Public Health Authority has come up with regarding the contagiousness of the disease caused by the coronavirus.

In addition to the usual advice where to stay at home during cold symptoms and to keep distance from other people, the authority has thus come up with a number of other guidelines that are both aimed at the public and partly at specially designated groups.

Special accommodations

An example is those who work in special housing for the elderly, as well as short-term care and environments with particularly sensitive individuals. There it is important to be fever-free for two days and to have been isolated for at least 14 days after the illness, according to the so-called precautionary principle. The same rules apply to hospitalized people who have had more severe symptoms of covid-19.

The authority writes in its press release on its website that the knowledge about the contagiousness of covid-19 is still limited, but that several studies conducted indicate that it appears to be the most contagious at the beginning of the disease course.

workgroup

But now it has succeeded in coming up with national criteria for freedom of infection at covid-19. This has been done with a working group consisting of representatives from the Swedish Infectious Medicine Association, the Society for Clinical Microbiology, the Swedish Hygiene Medical Association, the Swedish Infectious Diseases Association and the Public Health Agency.

SVT Nyheter has sought the Public Health Authority and Sweden's municipalities and regions (SKR) for comments on what the new guidelines may have significance.