Taiwan mulling home quarantine for mild cases if daily COVID count exceeds 1,500

如果每日COVID確診超過1,500名，台灣考慮對輕症病例進行在家隔離

'Right now, the community is very nervous about those who are quarantined at home': Chen


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Tuesday (April 5) stated that if daily COVID cases surpass 1,500 in Taiwan, the center will consider allowing people with mild symptoms to quarantine at home.

During a press conference, CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) reported 216 local infections and 65 imported ones. Tuesday marked the fifth consecutive day that Taiwan had reported over 100 cases, with even mild and asymptomatic cases currently required to undergo isolation in a quarantine facility.

Chen said there are 10,000 beds in quarantine facilities for those who have been diagnosed and that half are currently occupied. Given that the current quarantine period is 10 days, these beds will not be filled unless there is an average of 1,000 cases per day.

He added that local epidemic prevention hotels have continued to increase in number and are being transformed into "enhanced epidemic prevention hotels," eventually raising the domestic capacity for mild or asymptomatic COVID patients to more than 15,000. Chen predicted that the combined number of beds in quarantine centers and epidemic prevention hotels should be adequate unless the daily case count exceeds 1,500, in which case the CECC may begin to allow mild and asymptomatic cases to quarantine at home.

Chen said that the CECC is continuing to make efforts to arrange for mild and asymptomatic cases to undergo isolation in "enhanced epidemic prevention hotels" or quarantine centers in order to ensure there are adequate hospital beds for moderate and severe cases. He said that in the future, people diagnosed with mild symptoms may be allowed to undergo quarantine at home, as long as they can follow the principle of "one person per household."

He said that the key will be the extent to which the public is willing to accept COVID-positive individuals undergoing quarantine in their community.

According to CECC statistics, 2,586 of the 3,854 beds in negative pressure isolation wards are empty, a vacancy rate of 67.1%. Meanwhile, Taiwan's 47 quarantine centers have a total of 6,372 beds, of which 2,665 are vacant, a vacancy rate of 41.8%.

There are currently only two "reinforced epidemic prevention hotels" with a total of 402 beds, of which 29 are vacant, a vacancy rate of only 7.2%.

With 216 COVID cases reported on Tuesday, Chen said that there are still many transmission chains in progress. He emphasized that he believes the domestic outbreak has not reached its peak from the perspective of the development curve.

In terms of medication to treat COVID, Chen said there are 4,000 courses of oral antiviral drugs available for patients with mild symptoms, and about 16,000 more will arrive in Taiwan within the next six months. There are still 16,000 courses of Remdesivir available for patients with more severe symptoms.