Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, people from all walks of life have cautiously tried to maintain a normal life by working hard to combine disease prevention with normal business operations. The pandemic is having an unprecedented effect on the air transport industry, and crew members working in direct contact with passengers have the highest risk of being infected with COVID-19. Just like medical workers, airline crew are under unimaginable mental stress while they are on duty.
To save their business and boost their performance at a time when global demand for air transportation has declined sharply, nations have implemented different quarantine measures for airline workers than for regular travelers, but such a flexible approach might not only create loopholes in disease prevention, but also increase the risk of infection among airline workers.
There have been many reports of workers in the fishery and shipping industries around the world being infected with the virus, and such matters are indeed regretabble. Over the past few weeks, airline workers in Taiwan have been infected with COVID-19, and this has resulted in an increased risk of community spread. This is something that those infected do not want to see happen, but the heightened risk possibly stems from the flexible quarantine measures put in place by the government and the air transport industry due to business considerations.
If Taiwan adopts regular quarantine measures for the air transport industry, its business could go from bad to worse. Nonetheless, the government should propose a quarantine strategy that is better able to protect workers in the airline industry.
As the authority in charge of disease prevention, the Central Epidemic Command Center should vaccinate as soon as possible all workers in the air transport industry, even if the effectiveness of the vaccine remains uncertain.
The government could consider including special subsidies and incentives for high-risk jobs. This would create a win-win situation that could shield the air transport industry from a financial fallout and workers from infection risk. When formulating a policy, the government should not only consider the infection transmission rate, but also the rights of workers.
The government should prepare in advance for personnel utilization issues in other industries with a high risk of infection. For example, officials should be prepared for the emergency dispatch of medical workers.
The Japanese government has found itself facing two major difficulties: The number of COVID-19 cases has been simultaneously increasing in several prefectures, while the number of vaccinated medical workers remains low, despite COVID-19 vaccine imports. Is Taiwan ready to deal with these challenges?
Weng Yu-chi is director of the Research Institute for Sustainable Civilization.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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