TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) expert on Thursday (July 21) predicted that a "0 + 7" quarantine scheme could be implemented by Lunar New Year 2023.
CECC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) convener Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) said during a Thursday interview with BaoDao Radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻), "It should be possible to (implement) 0 + 7 before the end of this year, and go abroad to play during the Lunar New Year." The Year of the Rabbit starts on Jan. 22, 2023.
As the outbreak in Taiwan appears to have reached a plateau and begun to decline, Chou pointed out many Taiwanese have become concerned about when the plan for arriving passengers can be relaxed to "0 + 7," in which quarantine is completely replaced with seven days of self-health monitoring. Lee said the CECC should be able to consider the "0 + 7" formula in the coming month or two.
He pointed out that the "whole world has opened its borders, and we cannot fall too far behind." The expert observed that in recent months, the number of daily COVID cases arriving from overseas is far less than the number of local infections.
Lee said this indicates that the chances of getting infected with the virus while abroad are not much worse than the odds of contracting the disease in Taiwan. He also suggested that although there are concerns about the new subvariants of Omicron, their arrival is inevitable and new quarantines would yield diminishing returns.
