The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it would issue a level 3 “warning” travel notice for 27 European countries and Dubai on Tuesday, adding that travelers from those areas would be quarantined at home 14 days upon arriving in Taiwan.
The center also raised the travel notice to a level 2 “alert” for three US states and issued a level 1 “watch” notice for all countries for which no other notice had been issued.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said that as the epidemic situation in Europe is rapidly worsening, the center would raise the travel notice to level 3 for 27 European countries, following Italy, as well as Dubai, advising people to avoid nonessential travel there.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The countries are France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Liechtenstein, as well as the UK and Ireland, whose citizens can move freely within the Schengen area, he said.
Although the travel notice takes effect on Tuesday, Chen said that travelers from these countries who had boarded their flights as of 2pm yesterday would be asked to perform enhanced self-health management after arriving in Taiwan.
Those who had not boarded a Taiwan-bound airplane by that time would be ordered to quarantine themselves for a mandatory 14 days upon arrival, he said.
Starting on Tuesday, foreign visitors who do not have a residence in which to be quarantined would be allowed stay at one of the nation’s quarantine facilities for a fee, the CECC said.
“As confirmed cases have been reported in 49 US states and a state of emergency has been declared [there], after comprehensive assessments, we have decided to raise the travel notice to a level 2 ‘alert’ for three states — Washington, New York and California — as community spread has been observed,” Chen said.
Asked why the travel notice for the US states was not the same as the one for Europe, Chen said that the epidemic situation in the US is better than in Europe, as the incidence rate there is about 7.5 per 1 million people, while the rate is about 292 per 1 million people in Italy and about 18.1 per 1 million people in Greece.
Other factors, including economic, trade and diplomatic relations, were also considered, he said.
The decision to issue a travel notice for all other countries is in response to the WHO declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, he added.
Chen urged people who have to travel abroad to wear a mask throughout flights, disinfect objects that they touch on the airplane and try to avoid using the lavatory or wash their hands thoroughly afterward.
Meanwhile, three new cases of COVID-19 infection were confirmed in Taiwan yesterday, all of them imported, Chen said.
The first new case — the nation’s 51st — is a Dutch man in his 30s who is the first officer of a commercial flight.
He arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday and sought emergency treatment at a hospital for difficulty breathing, chest tightness and fatigue on Wednesday, the CECC said, adding that he was reported to health authorities on Thursday and tested positive yesterday.
The second new case is a man in his 30s from northern Taiwan who traveled to Switzerland via Turkey with two friends on Feb. 28.
The man traveled to France on Feb. 29 before returning to Switzerland on Sunday last week and arrived in Taiwan on Monday, it added.
On Thursday, he sought treatment at a hospital for a fever, fatigue, coughing and a runny nose, and yesterday tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the nation’s 52nd case.
The third new case is also a man in his 30s from northern Taiwan who visited Munich and Nuremberg in Germany on a business trip from Feb. 22 to March 6, sought treatment for coughing up sputum and a sore throat in Taiwan on Wednesday, and his test result came out positive yesterday, the center said.
Contact investigations are being conducted for all three cases, Chen said.
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