More than 150,000 people traveled through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday — the first day of the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday — with all carry-on luggage on flights from China, Hong Kong and Macau having to pass through X-ray scanners to prevent illegal meat imports.
Since China first reported an African swine fever outbreak in August last year, the disease has spread to 25 of its provinces, municipalities and regions, with the 108th and most recent case reported on Jan. 20 in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Aviation police on Jan. 16 began manually checking carry-on luggage on flights from China, Hong Kong and Macau, as these have been identified as high-risk areas.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
As 16 new X-ray scanners began operating at the airport yesterday, visitors’ waiting times were reduced to about 1.5 minutes from seven minutes, said Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), who visited the airport to inspect the machines.
The council has dispatched 256 quarantine officials to work in shifts at the airport, while the Ministry of the Interior has sent 256 aviation police, Chen said.
From Friday last week, foreign visitors would be denied entry to Taiwan if they fail to pay fines for importing illegal pork products from areas that have been infected with African swine fever in the past three years.
Starting from Dec. 18 last year, people caught illegally importing pork products face fines of NT$200,000 (US$6,505) for their first offense and NT$1 million for repeated offenses.
As of Thursday, four Chinese have been denied entry into Taiwan, while five other Chinese were allowed in after paying NT$200,000 each, council data showed.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of dead pigs being dumped nationwide, but only two carcasses found in Kinmen County on Dec. 31 last year and in Lienchiang County on Jan. 17 have tested positive for the disease, the data showed.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it inspected four meat processing factories in Kinmen on Jan. 29, but did not find any pork products imported from areas infected with the disease.
Additional reporting by Chu Pei-hsiung and Cheng Wei-chi
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