Japan to Scrap Quarantine for Medical Workers Exposed to Omicron
- A 14-day isolation for workers was stressing the health system
- Highest one-day rise since September in infections this week
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Japan will allow medical workers who have been identified as close contacts of omicron cases to keep working, after staff absences caused by a 14-day quarantine period stressed the health system in an area suffering from a large outbreak.
The health-care staff can continue working as long as they pass daily tests, the country’s health minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters on Wednesday. The government is moving to allocate resources to those who need them the most as cases surge in Japan, which had all but snuffed out its wave of the delta variant.