From 24 June, fully vaccinated people will no longer have to quarantine after having a high-risk contact if they immediately test negative, Belgium's different health ministers decided on Wednesday.
Previously, all people who had a high-risk contact with an infected person have to quarantine for at least seven days. If they test negative on day 7, they can leave quarantine. If they do not get tested, they have to quarantine for ten days.
From Thursday, however, "fully vaccinated high-risk contacts should only be tested on day 1 and, if negative, will be exempted from a second test and quarantine," the Interministerial Health Conference decided earlier this month.
"In case of refusal of a test, a quarantine of ten days must be respected," they added.
The ministers stressed that people will be considered "fully vaccinated" 14 days after they received their last required vaccine dose. "In other words, from 14 days after the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and from 14 days after the two doses of all other vaccines."
In the event of a cluster of infections in a residential care centre or other collectivities, and companies when a so-called "breakthrough infection" (testing positive after being fully vaccinated) occurs, the current quarantine rules are maintained for fully vaccinated people.
Currently, about 6.4 million people in Belgium (70.2% of adults) already received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while over 3.6 million (39.2% of adults) have been fully vaccinated.
