Starting from tomorrow, all non-resident foreign nationals are temporarily banned from entering Taiwan for a month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday, as it confirmed Taiwan’s first case of the new COVID-19 variant from the UK.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that border control and quarantine measures would be tightened to prevent the new, more contagious coronavirus variant, which was first reported in the UK and has since spread to other continents.
“Starting from Jan. 1, all foreign nationals, except those holding an Alien Resident Certificate or under special conditions, will be temporarily banned from entry,” he said, adding that the ban would cover travelers with a flight scheduled after midnight.
Photo courtesy of Magpie Entertainment
Exemptions to the entry ban also include foreigners who are Alien Permanent Residence Certificate holders, diplomatic and service passport holders, business personnel who are fulfilling contractual obligations, humanitarian visa holders, the spouses or minor children of Taiwanese, and people who have special government approval.
“As for Taiwanese who are returning from other countries, starting from Jan. 15, aside from the current requirement of providing a negative polymerase chain reaction [PCR] test result [obtained within three days of] boarding, they are to be placed under strengthened quarantine regulations,” Chen said.
He said that the majority of returning travelers should stay in a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility.
If people wish to be quarantined at home, there can only be “one person in one housing unit,” Chen said.
However, “individuals can stay in the same housing unit with people who came back with them, but there cannot be other people, who have been in Taiwan and are not under home quarantine, staying with them in the same unit,” he added.
“We hope to build a stronger defensive line between returning individuals and the local community,” he added.
Chen said that international flights would also be banned from making transits in Taiwan’s airports starting tomorrow.
The policy changes were made after the CECC confirmed that case No. 792 — a Taiwanese teenager who returned from the UK and tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday — had the new variant of the coronavirus, which is believed to be 70 percent more contagious.
Chen said that while capacity at quarantine hotels and centralized quarantine facilities is limited, the center must consider how to protect people, so the new policy would reduce the number of arriving foreign travelers, but still allow Taiwanese to return home.
Chen said that two imported cases of COVID-19 were confirmed yesterday: two female migrant workers from the Philippines who are in their 20s and arrived in Taiwan on Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, and both provided a negative PCR test result.
They tested positive for COVID-19 in tests taken on Monday and Tuesday, before ending centralized quarantine, he said.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
RSS