As of Monday next week, international travelers who arrive in Taiwan having experienced COVID-19 symptoms within the previous 14 days would need to provide two consecutive negative test results before being allowed to return home or to a quarantine hotel, while travelers from the Philippines without symptoms would be required to stay at centralized quarantine facilities, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The center also reported a new imported case of COVID-19, a Taiwanese who had returned from Poland.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said with the pandemic worsening globally, the center is expecting more people to return home to Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
“As the risk of imported cases may increase, we must remain vigilant ... to prevent the virus spreading into local communities,” Chen said.
Starting from Monday, all arrivals who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or had experienced symptoms in the previous 14 days would be required to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at the airport and stay at a centralized quarantine facility while awaiting the result.
“Those who test negative in the first test must then take a second PCR test at least 24 hours later,” he said.
Those who test negative in two consecutive tests and are not experiencing symptoms would be assessed by a physician before being allowed to return home or to a quarantine hotel to complete the rest of the quarantine period, he added.
With the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines slowing, the quarantine measures for travelers arriving from the Philippines from Monday would be the same as those from other nations, Chen said.
Those arriving without symptoms would be allowed to complete the 14-day quarantine period at home or at a quarantine hotel, but also practice an additional seven days of self-health management, he said, adding that the special quarantine measures for migrant workers and international students would remain.
The latest imported case is a Taiwanese in her 20s who traveled with two colleagues to Poland for work on Sept. 16.
The three returned to Taiwan on Oct. 25 and were quarantined at home as they were not experiencing symptoms when they arrived at the airport.
The woman — case No. 569 — began experiencing fatigue, a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and loss of smell and taste between Friday last week and Sunday.
She was tested for COVID-19 at a hospital and the result came back positive yesterday, Chen said, adding that the two colleagues are not experiencing symptoms and remain in quarantine.
Meanwhile, Chen said that a fall-winter COVID-19 prevention program would be launched in the middle of this month and that the details were still being discussed.
The program would not set limits on the number of participants at events such as year-end company banquets unless locally transmitted cases with an unknown source of infection were to occur.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS