BARCELONA, Spain — Just hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Dec. 27 that it was slashing the isolation time for people who test positive for COVID-19, European governments scrambled to follow the U.S. health agency’s lead.
Mirroring the new edict, Greece cut the requisite days of self-confinement from 10 to five days, a move followed by the Czech Republic. Portugal and Ireland likewise fell in line, like Spain lessening isolation periods for those with COVID-19 to a week.
The stakes surrounding the CDC’s decision are high in Europe, which last week reported over 5 million cases of the disease caused by exposure to the coronavirus. With