The Health Ministry announced Wednesday that the quarantine period for COVID-19 patients has been reduced to seven days from 14 days, joining a growing number of countries revising the isolation process. The move comes amid a surge in infections, however, the health minister assured that there was no need to worry about more severe cases, for now, as there hasn't been a surge in hospitalizations.

The surge is tied to omicron, the fast-spreading variant that countries the world over are scrambling to contain with new measures. On Wednesday, Turkey reported 66,467 cases, the highest count since April 2021, the second time the country broke a nine-month record increase in cases. On the other hand, fatalities are not as high as in the past and have hovered around 143, bolstering the notion that the variant is not as deadly as its predecessors since symptoms are mild in most cases. Still, experts say more data is needed to grasp the true scope of the variant's impact.

In a written statement issued after the meeting of Health Ministry's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca reiterated that the quarantine period for people who have tested positive has been reduced to seven days. People who test negative on the fifth day of the quarantine will be allowed to end their isolation, he said. People who have received booster shots or contracted the virus in the last three months will not be forced to quarantine if they come into contact with an infected person, Koca added. Unvaccinated people or those who received their booster shots more than three months ago will be required to quarantine for seven days and must test negative on the fifth day of the quarantine to come out of isolation.

Quarantine periods have been revised in other countries amid omicron's recent surge in a bid not to disrupt daily life, with data so far showing that the variant causes milder infections that do not require hospitalization. The United States imposed a five-day quarantine for people who test positive while the United Kingdom, Spain and France changed the quarantine periods to seven days.

Turkey has refrained from introducing widespread restrictions so far despite the surge. The country lifted curfews, lockdowns and other strict measures in summer 2021 but wearing protective masks, adhering to social distancing and following hygiene rules are still mandatory. People are also required to have a Life Fits Into Home (Hayat Eve Sığar – HES) code, a type of vaccine pass, to enter shared spaces and crowded venues. The unvaccinated are subject to a number of restrictions as well. Minister Koca said personal protection bears importance at a time of surging cases and urged the public to stay away from crowded places.

Koca said the rise in cases has "not reflected" on hospitals' so far, giving the example of Istanbul, Turkey's most populated city, which also had the highest number of omicron cases. "We don't have sufficient data to say that omicron leads to fewer hospitalizations compared to other variants but the current indicators show there is no need to worry," he stressed.

The minister also highlighted the importance of booster shots for protection. "Bear in mind that the vaccinated people have protection against the virus and even infected, they suffer from a mild case," he added.

The surge in the omicron variant had also prompted calls to close schools, which reopened last year when the country switched back to in-person education. Koca reiterated the minister of education's earlier remarks and said in-person education would continue in compliance with measures, like mandatory masks for students and staff, proper ventilation and hygiene rules.

The vaccination program remains the country's only hope to stave off the impact of the pandemic. Launched in January 2021, over 134 million doses have been administered through the program. Around 83% of the adult population have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines and at least 20 million people have received booster shots.

Professor Serap Şimşek Yavuz, a member of Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, says booster shots are needed for full protection against the virus, noting that even people who recovered from COVID-19 in the past are vulnerable to omicron if they miss booster shots. "Inactive vaccines appear less efficient against omicron. We recommend people to have three doses of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine of Pfizer-BioNTech," she told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Wednesday. Yavuz said people at the highest risk from omicron were the unvaccinated, immunocompromised individuals, elderly people with weak antibody levels and those yet to get their booster shots.