A review on Quarantine during COVID-19 Outbreak: Lessons Learned from Previous Epidemics

Abstract

Since emergence in December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have caused a global pandemic that have infected so many people all around the world and led to a large number of deaths. As there are no vaccination or antiviral treatment available yet, public health measures play a substantial role in the management of this pandemic. Quarantine is one of the most effective and oldest public health measures to control the spread of communicable diseases. In response to recent COVID-19 outbreak, governments of affected countries have imposed different quarantine policies and travel bans. Quarantining people who are currently healthy but possibly infected during a pandemic is very significant due to its effectiveness, but it comes at a heavy cost. If the benefits outweigh the risks, quarantine should be used. As quarantine can have many controversial aspects, this review intends to clarify its role in disease control and other aspects of human everyday life with due attention to a couple of epidemics in the past (SARS, MERS and flu) and ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.