I. What Is Quarantine?

Quarantine refers to the separation and restriction of persons who, while not ill, have been exposed to an infectious agent and therefore may become infectious. It lasts long enough to ensure the person has not contracted an infectious disease.Quarantine is usually used when a person has been exposed to a highly dangerous and infectious disease. There needs to be consideration for what resources are available to care for quarantined people and what resources are available to implement and maintain the quarantine and deliver essential services, such as food.

Quarantine can include a range of disease control strategies that may be used individually or in combination, including: short-term, voluntary home confinement; restrictions on travel by those who may have been exposed; and restrictions on passage into and out of a geographic area. Quarantine is usually involves limited numbers of people in a limited geographic region than to be widespread.

II. What is the ring method of quarantine?

Small areas in which people may be quarantined can be thought of as ‘rings’ drawn around individual disease cases (here, COVID-19). Examples of this method of quarantine are passengers on an airplane, students at a college, people who attended the same event at a stadium, or people who all entered the same building over a given period of time.

In the case of a large disease outbreak, such as COVID-19 pandemic, there may be a large number of these rings or more large-scale methods may be used, such as the restriction of the use of public transportation.

MoHFW Guidelines for Quarantine