Starting yesterday, schools at the senior-high school level and under can apply for foreign students, including Chinese, to enter Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
Speaking at the center’s weekly news conference, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said there were no new COVID-19 cases yesterday and the total number of cases in Taiwan remained at 486.
Of the 486, seven people have died, 457 have been released from isolation after treatment and 22 people are hospitalized.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Chen said as the quarantine situation of foreign students at local universities has been proceeding smoothly, all schools at the senior-high school level and under can now apply to the Ministry of Education to allow foreigners to enter the nation to study in the upcoming semester.
They include students from China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as current students and freshmen, he said.
The students must be quarantined at designated facilities for 14 days after arriving in Taiwan, and produce a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at the end of the quarantine period before they can attend school, he added.
Mandatory PCR testing is required to avoid the risk of cluster infections on campus and to prevent the students from being discriminated or bullied at school, Chen said.
Deputy Minister of Education Lio Mon-chi (劉孟奇) said there are 2,532 eligible students who can apply to enter Taiwan, of whom 232 are current students and 2,300 are freshmen.
Arrangements would be made to accept 50 to 100 into the nation every day, Lio said.
Separately yesterday, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has given clear instructions regarding the issue, because she cares very much about letting Chinese students and Chinese children of a Taiwanese parent to return before the next semester begins.
The government regards disease prevention as its top priority, but the policy of allowing foreign students to return has been clear, so options have been discussed to allow them to enter in three phases in cooperation with the CECC’s policies, Chen Ming-tong said.
Meanwhile, Chen Shih-chung said that the government of Laos has informed the CECC through the International Health Regulations National Focal Point that a Laotian had tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving from Taiwan.
The man, who is in his 30s, traveled to Taiwan on Feb. 15 and studied in northern Taiwan, he said.
He tested negative for COVID-19 in Taiwan on Monday last week, Chen Shih-chung said, adding that he left on Tuesday and made a stopover in South Korea, before arriving in Laos on Wednesday, when he was tested again, which came back positive on Thursday.
The CECC said that the man did not show any symptoms, adding that it has identified eight people who had come into close contact with the man in Taiwan.
Three of them have been placed under home isolation and five have been asked to perform self-health management, the center said, adding that it would continue to look for other possible contacts.
Chen Shih-chung also commented on media reports that a traveler from Taiwan had tested positive in Shanghai and another had tested positive in Vietnam.
However, as the Chinese authorities have not yet confirmed the case in Shanghai, their friends in Taiwan have provided the center with information, he added.
The other traveler is a Vietnamese migrant worker in his 40s, who worked in northern Taiwan, returned to his homeland on Aug. 7 and tested negative at the airport, he said.
However, he stayed at a centralized quarantine center in Vietnam, where he shared a room and had meals with two other Vietnamese who had returned from the US and Japan, Chen Shih-chung said, adding that the two roommates developed symptoms on Wednesday last week, and both tested positive for COVID-19.
The man developed a sore throat, fever and abdominal pain on Saturday and tested positive in a second test on Monday, he said, adding that CECC has initiated contact tracing to identify his close contacts in Taiwan.
In related news, the CECC said that three previous cases were “closed” — a Belgian man who tested positive in Taiwan on July 29 before his planned departure for his native country; a Taiwanese woman who tested positive in Hong Kong on Aug. 8 after arriving there on July 27; and a Japanese man who tested positive on Aug. 1 after returning from Taiwan.
CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said that PCR and antibody testing conducted on 470 close contacts of the Belgian, 37 contacts of the Taiwanese and 104 contacts of the Japanese all came back negative.
The Belgian reported having experienced suspected COVID-19 symptoms in March before arriving in Taiwan on May 3, and he mainly worked and traveled between Changhua County and Taipei, Chang said.
Pulmonologists suggested that the man’s impaired pulmonary function seemed to have occurred at least three months ago, indicating that he might have been infected before arriving in Taiwan, he added.
Contact tracing and test results did not find any possible sources of infection for the three cases, and they did not transmit the disease in Taiwan, Chang said.
As 14 days have passed since the three tested positive, the panel deems them not having had a negative impact on Taiwan’s disease situation, he added.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique