JERUSALEM, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Israel's health ministry on Wednesday announced the extension of the quarantine period for those who tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

The quarantine period for Omicron patients has been extended to 14 days, compared with 10 days for people tested positive for other coronavirus variants, the ministry said.

The measure was applied due to the concern that people tested positive for Omicron may be infected for a longer period than those infected with other variants.

Omicron patients will be given a recovery certificate if no sickness symptoms have appeared in the last three days of quarantine.

A person with a high suspicion of being infected with Omicron could be considered "recovered" after 10 days with the agreement of a district head physician, if genomic sequencing results had not been obtained by then.

To date, the ministry has reported 21 Omicron cases in Israel, along with 21 more cases with high suspicion for the variant. Enditem