CECC to plan for 7-, 5-, 3-day quarantines for arrivals
ROC Central News Agency
03/14/2022 10:01 PM
Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Taiwan's Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Monday that planning of the country's COVID-19 response is moving in the direction of shorter quarantine periods.
Taiwan began requiring all arrivals to the country to quarantine for 14 days upon entry on March 19, 2020. The quarantine period was shortened to 10 days beginning a week ago on March 7.
Speaking to reporters during a banquet hosted by the Taipei Hotel Association on Monday, Chen said the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) will draft plans for quarantine periods of seven, five, and three days for arrivals to Taiwan.
If the COVID-19 situation is stable in the coming month, a seven-day quarantine may be in the cards, though doing so may result in 3.5 percent of COVID-19-infected travelers going undetected, Chen said.
Up to a fifth of arrivals with COVID-19 could be undetected if they are only required to quarantine for five days, and "that is when the challenge begins," he said.
When asked about the CECC's timeline for loosening border restrictions, Chen said it was hard to predict when Taiwan will allow the entry of foreign tourists or cancel quarantines on arrival because the situation with COVID-19 can change rapidly.
Chen told legislators earlier this month that it was unlikely the quarantine period required for arrivals would be canceled entirely before the end of 2022, unless there were new types of medicine targeting COVID-19.
(By Chen Yi-hsuan and Chiang Yi-ching)
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