Starting next week, the mandatory home quarantine for inbound travelers is to be shortened to seven days, followed by seven days of self-health management, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that travelers on flights arriving in Taiwan after 12am on Monday would need to quarantine at home for seven days, not 10 days.
People in quarantine would need to be tested for COVID-19 twice: a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at the airport upon their arrival (day zero) and a rapid COVID-19 test on the day of their release from quarantine (day 7), Chen said.
Photo: CNA
If symptoms arise during quarantine, the traveler should conduct a rapid test and report to their local health department if the result is positive, he said.
The quarantine principle is still “one person per household,” and if the requirement cannot be met, the inbound traveler should quarantine at a hotel for seven days, he added.
Two at-home rapid test kits are provided to inbound travelers at the airport: one for the final required test and one in the case of symptoms, the center said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Only PCR tests should be used for quarantined infants under the age of two, it said.
People can ask local authorities for assistance if they have trouble conducting a rapid test.
Chen said the center should consider exempting people from isolation if they have received a booster shot and can provide a negative result to a rapid COVID-19 test.
He made the comment after being asked to confirm a Mirror Media magazine report about a plan to drop the home isolation policy from next month if the percentage of Taiwanese with a booster shot rises, and COVID-19 cases with severe complications and deaths remain low.
“Similar plans are being discussed, but many factors continue to change — so I will announce plans when they have been finalized,” Chen said.
Separately, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) on Monday wrote that the average incidence rate of COVID-19 in Taiwan over the past week was about 387 per million, comparable to the nation’s main trading partners (between two and 415 per million) and that the number of new domestic cases was 46 to 113 times the number of imported cases on a given day.
As Taiwan relies heavily on global trade and international exchanges, and the government is transitioning toward living with the virus, border controls should be revised, he said, adding that the quarantine measures for confirmed cases and their close contacts should be similar.
Chan said that officials should consider the methods adopted by countries that have reopened their borders by first easing restrictions on foreign travelers with a booster shot and a negative test result.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’