A new government guideline will reduce the required isolation period for people who came into contact with a COVID-19 patient with the omicron variant to ten days from the current 14.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters on Tuesday explained the quarantine period for those who were exposed to the omicron variant will be made the same as that of delta, starting sometime next week.

Authorities said the change comes as it has been concluded that ten days is appropriate, given available accumulated information on the new strain.

This comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut its recommended quarantine for people exposed to COVID-19 from ten to five days, if they are fully vaccinated. 

On whether Korea could follow suit, officials said such a decision must consider the transmissibility of variants to minimize infection risks. At the moment, they said, there are insufficient grounds to reduce the period to the same level as the U.S.