From today, all Chinese nationals are banned from entering Taiwan, while people who have traveled to China, Hong Kong or Macau in the previous 14 days are to be put under mandatory home quarantine for 14 days after returning to Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center announced yesterday.
The only exception would be people who travel to Hong Kong or Macau after obtaining the government’s permission, who would be “asked to perform mandatory self-care management after returning to Taiwan,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the center.
The center designated China as a secondary epidemic area for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, while the Mainland Affairs Council issued a “red” travel advisory — its highest level, meaning “do not visit” — for China and a “yellow” travel advisory — meaning “reconsider visiting” — for Hong Kong and Macau.
Photo: Chan Shih-hung, Taipei Times
Taiwan had no new confirmed 2019-nCoV infections yesterday, Chen said, but added that two Taiwanese evacuees from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the outbreak, showed mild respiratory symptoms and were quarantined at a hospital for further examination.
“However, confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV in China continue to increase rapidly and many areas in China have imposed travel bans or restrictions,” he said. “The whole of China has become an epidemic area.”
Mainland Affiars Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said that Taiwanese who travel to China despite the agency’s travel warning would be quarantined at home for 14 days when they return.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The council in a news release said that 19 of China’s 31 provinces and cities had reported more than 100 confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV, including clustered infections in local communities in Beijing and Shanghai.
Confirmed cases in Hong Kong and Macau have also continued to increase in the past few days, the council said, urging people to remain cautious and reconsider traveling to the two territories.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that people placed under mandatory home quarantine should practice self-discipline and observe the restrictions, adding that those whose breach quarantine would be dealt with according to the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) and the Criminal Code.
“Local civil administrations, including borough and village wardens, are to cooperate with local health departments by finding people who lose contact with officials during quarantine,” he said. “If such people cannot be found, the police would step in to conduct a search.”
“Police will implement measures employed when solving major criminal cases when searching for such people,” Hsu said.
People with a fever who take antipyretics to reduce their body temperature or provide false information in the Novel Coronavirus Health Declaration Card upon their arrival in Taiwan would also face fines or other punishment for contravening the Social Order Maintenance Act and the Criminal Code, he said.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS