Health authorities in Taiwan are considering cutting the quarantine period for incoming travelers down from two weeks to 10 days. But a lot still depends on whether or not Taiwan experiences a spike in cases following the Lunar New Year holiday.
It’s back to the office for Taiwan’s workers after the Lunar New Year break. But after all those family gatherings, the ennui of the nine-to-five masks the fact that now is a make-or-break period for Taiwan’s fight to control an Omicron outbreak.
CMU Children’s Hospital’s Dr Hwang Kao-pin says the COVID-19 Omicron variant has an incubation period of three to four days. That means 70% to 80% of infected people will show symptoms within a week. Hwang says if cases don’t spike in the next two weeks, Taiwan should have the virus under control.
Right now, incoming travelers face 14 days’ quarantine upon arrival. But Hwang says that could drop to 10 days in March or April.
And National Taiwan University Professor of Public Health Chen Hsiu-hsi says quarantine could become even shorter.
Chen says authorities could cut quarantine to five days by June, if case numbers start trending down around the globe in the next few months. But he says Taiwan would need some time to prepare for that.
The main form that preparation would take is making sure people have had their third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Authorities could also ban indoor dining for unvaccinated people.
But for now, nothing is set in stone. And, as experience shows, a few months is a long time during a global pandemic.