TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Thursday (March 9) announced that starting on March 20, mild COVID cases will be exempt from quarantine and reporting and will instead follow a "0+n" formula for their self-health monitoring period.
Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) head Victor Wang (王必勝) on Feb. 16 announced the CECC was looking to change the quarantine period for mild COVID cases from the "5+n" scheme to a "0+n" formula in March. Under the new plan, mild COVID cases would undergo zero days of quarantine and up to 10 days of self-health monitoring, depending on how soon they test negative.
In addition, Wang said that the CECC was considering only reporting hospitalized patients with severe illness, while those with mild symptoms will not be required to report their positive test to the CECC. Meanwhile, acting Cabinet Spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that during a Cabinet meeting Chen said the pandemic has slowed down recently and Asia-Pacific countries have begun to relax their epidemic prevention measures.
Chen noted cases did not rebound after the indoor mask mandate was lifted, while the CECC has launched a vaccination campaign to boost herd immunity. With these facts in mind, Chen said that it is time to expand the easing of epidemic prevention regulations.
During the Cabinet meeting, Chen agreed with the CECC's plan to change the "case definition" for COVID as well as exempt mild cases from quarantine and reporting their positive results. He also agreed with the implementation of the "0+n" policy for self-health monitoring in mild cases.
The premier expressed the hope that as the outbreak is brought under control, medical capacity can be maintained as people return to normal life.
He said relevant details would be announced at a CECC press conference on Thursday. In addition, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor will explain the policy on leave for self-health monitoring for students, faculty members, and the general public who test positive for COVID but are asymptomatic.
