TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday (Nov. 2) announced it will shorten the seven-day quarantine for confirmed COVID cases to five days under the new "5+n" scheme starting Nov. 14.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC's medical response division, announced that the CECC Expert Advisory Panel came to a consensus that the mandatory quarantine for COVID cases can be shortened from seven days to five days, effective Nov. 14. Lo said that COVID cases are still required to undergo seven days of self-health monitoring unless they test negative at any point starting from the fifth day of quarantine.

Lo said that the new formula has been dubbed "5+n," meaning five days of quarantine and up to seven days of self-health monitoring, depending on how soon they test negative. As for the timing of the new rule, Lo said that given there are a number of new eased measures going into effect on Nov. 7, a week of monitoring will be needed to assess the impact of those changes before launching the next round of relaxed regulations.

CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) explained that "n" means that starting on the fifth day of quarantine, if a person tests negative for COVID, they can dispense with self-health monitoring. If they test positive on that first day, they can continue to test every day and still end self-health monitoring if they receive a negative result within that seven-day period.

After seven days have passed, there is no further need to continue checking one's condition. Even during the self-health monitoring phase, people are allowed to venture out, but they are expected to follow standard guidelines.

Wang pointed out that on Nov. 7, Taiwan will first launch the "7+n" plan, previously referred to as "7+0," which involves two more days than the "5+n" formula. He said that the Expert Advisory Panel will monitor the progress of this scheme before launching "5+n" on Nov. 14.