The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is discussing the possibility of allowing people abroad who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 — including with Chinese vaccines — to spend less time in quarantine after arriving in Taiwan, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
In an interview published yesterday in the Chinese-language United Daily News, Chen said that the center is considering reopening the nation’s borders in two stages based on vaccination coverage rates in Taiwan.
The plan for the first stage, when the coverage rate is relatively low, is that inbound travelers can apply for a seven-day quarantine if they have been inoculated overseas, including with Chinese vaccines, but approval would be based on the result of a mandatory COVID-19 test, the minister said.
Photo: Reuters
In the second stage, when the vaccination rate is more than 60 percent, inbound travelers might be exempted from compulsory quarantine, but the decision would be made according to the situation then, he said.
When asked for confirmation of the comments, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, yesterday said that the policy is being discussed, but there are scientific and technical challenges.
Asked whether China’s Sinovac vaccine, which was reported to have only about a 50 percent efficacy rate, would also be recognized, Lo said that the policy is to recognize “the fact that the individual has been vaccinated against COVID-19 in another country,” so it would not target any particular vaccine.
The law bans the government from purchasing vaccines manufactured in China, but the planned policy would not exclude travelers who received them, either in China or elsewhere, Lo said.
However, while Chinese vaccine manufacturers have released their own reports, so far final results of phase 3 clinical trials have not been published in accredited international medical journals, and none of them have been authorized by the WHO, the European Medicines Agency or the US Food and Drug Administration, he said.
Therefore, the plan is for inbound travelers who submit proof of having been vaccinated overseas to get paid-out-of-pocket tests after seven days of quarantine in Taiwan and be released from quarantine if the results are acceptable, he said.
The tests would include a polymerase chain reaction and antibody tests, Lo said, but added that there are scientific and technical challenges over how to set standards for antibody tests to ensure that the result indicates that an individual has enough protection against COVID-19.
CECC specialists are still collecting data for further discussion, he added.
Separately, Huang Li-min (黃立民), head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s pediatrics department and a specialist in infectious diseases, said that several countries that have administered the Sinovac vaccine are still finding it difficult to control their COVID-19 situation, so recognizing Chinese vaccines might be risky.
Asked about the proposed policy, a 28-year-old woman surnamed Chen (陳) said that she does not believe in the efficacy of Chinese vaccines, so people who have been given them might risk infecting people in Taiwan.
The center should not risk the health of people in Taiwan to show friendliness toward China, she said.
Additional reporting by Yang Yuan-ting
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS