Public health is now requiring non-vaccinated members of a household where one person is at high risk of contact with COVID-19 to also stay home if the high risk contact needs to isolate.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health announced the new update to their self-isolation rules Tuesday. Non-vaccinated members of a household where someone has had a high-risk exposure will need to isolate at home for the same length of time as the high risk contact.
During this period, unvaccinated members should not attend school or child care, and should only leave home for essential reasons, such as attending work, or picking up groceries and prescriptions, public health said in a news release.
Once the isolation period is over, public health officials say high risk contacts and unvaccinated household members can return to school or other activities.
A release about the announcement says growing evidence suggests that the fourth wave of the pandemic, fuelled by the Delta variant, requires additional measures to protect our community as we all seek to keep workplaces, childcare, public spaces and schools open and safe.
Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum, associate officer of medical health, adds this new requirement will help limit transmission and help keep the region as open as possible as safely as possible.
“The Delta variant is different. It is more transmissible and is a threat to anyone who is not or cannot be vaccinated,” says Tenenbaum in the release, “We must continue to follow the science on COVID-19 and introduce additional measures wherever they can offer more protection.”
High-risk contacts who are fully vaccinated will not need to be isolated as long as they remain symptom-free. In this scenario, public health says members of the high-risk contact’s household do not need to stay home.
For more information about this new public health safety guideline, go to wdgpublichealth.ca/vaccine.
