Maximum disease prevention measures were taken by ground staff as passengers arriving in Taiwan on a China Airlines (CAL, 中華航空) flight from London were last night sent to three quarantine centers in the greater Taipei area, Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission Director Wang Pi-sheng (王必勝) said.
Upon landing at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the 114 passengers on Flight CI-82 — 90 Taiwanese, one Chinese and 23 foreign nationals — were led to an airport lounge and greeted by ground staff wearing masks and protective suits, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
Passengers with symptoms received a COVID-19 test on site, while the others were sent in six buses to the quarantine centers, where they also received COVID-19 tests before they began 14 days of quarantine, the CECC said, adding that the results would be available today.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
All passengers would be tested a second time before they complete their quarantine, it said, adding that the 13 flight personnel were required to quarantine at home for 14 days.
As of press time, one passenger was sent to hospital directly from the airport with a fever, the CECC said.
The flight was the first to arrive from the UK since the CECC last week cut the number of weekly flights between the two countries from two to one and introduced new arrival protocols for travelers from England in response to a new coronavirus strain, which is believed to be up to 70 percent more contagious.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Separately yesterday, Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) announced that, starting today, post offices nationwide would stop delivering or accepting airmail or packages to and from the UK.
“As the UK is severely affected by the discovery of a more transmissible COVID-19 virus strain, airlines in charge of delivering mail for the company have canceled all of their flights heading to the country,” the postal company said. “We will make further announcements as to when and how postal services to the UK will resume.”
Deliveries to foreign countries or regions are mostly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the most serious delays reported for mail and packages to Canada, France, Malaysia, the US and Melbourne, Australia, it added.
Meanwhile, the CECC said that Taiwan has two new imported cases of COVID-19, both of whom are Indonesian fishers.
The two fishers came to Taiwan on Dec. 10 with proof of a negative COVID-19 test issued within three days of their flight, and went into quarantine at a hotel, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, told a news conference.
After they completed their quarantine, their labor brokers arranged for them to be tested on Friday and their results came back positive yesterday, Chuang said, adding that both are asymptomatic.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
CHANGE OF GUARD: Hsiao Bi-khim’s attendance at Joe Biden’s inauguration will come as a boost to those in Taiwan who feared that the new US administration would be less friendly than that of Donald Trump to the nation Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is to attend US President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol after she was invited by the US Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a news release issued by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US said last night. The news came as a surprise as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been reticent about the matter, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members had accused the Democratic Progressive Party administration of hedging its bets on the Republican Party. Asked about when Hsiao received the invitation, the ministry did not
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
RSS