On Monday night, Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center released a new quarantine plan for people who have come in contact with confirmed COVID cases. The new plan went into effect on Tuesday, causing some confusion about how to safely carry out this new quarantine protocol.
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Many local representatives have been fielding phone calls non-stop, ever since Taiwan's government released its “3+4” plan. The new quarantine protocol for contacts of COVID cases came out Monday night, and went into effect the next morning.
A Taipei district chief, Chen Chih-ying, says that the new plan did not give a comprehensive procedural outline for the wide range of scenarios that people have been calling about. In many cases, he has been unable to answer the people's specific questions.
Here's an example of how the “3+4” plan works. If a student comes in contact with a COVID case on Friday, they would need to quarantine at home for three days, starting from the day after contact. If the person tests negative after three days in quarantine, they can leave their home on Tuesday and start four-days of self-health management.
Some people are complaining that the contact tracing system is too slow to keep up with the “3+4” plan. In some situations, people don't realize they came in contact with a COVID case until four days later, making it unclear whether they still need to be quarantined at all.
Others are frustrated that there aren't enough resources to answer their questions. People say they keep trying to call the health ministry, but the line is too busy.
The 3+4 plan was put into effect very quickly, which has caused some confusion. It is also one of Taiwan's newest COVID strategies as the nation copes with a surge of local cases yet tries to enable people to live fairly normal lives.