The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said that it is considering easing the quarantine restrictions imposed on airline cabin crews following flight duties overseas, adding that it plans to finalize details next week.
After quarantine breaches by several flight attendants and pilots led to three locally transmitted cases of COVID-19, the quarantine requirement for cabin crews was tightened on Jan. 1.
Crews are required to quarantine for seven days and practice self-health management for another seven days. They are banned from taking public transport during the self-health management period.
Photo: CNA
The prior rules required them to home quarantine for three to five days and practice self-health management for another seven days.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) proposed easing the quarantine for cabin crews after only isolated and minor breaches were recorded over the past two months, CAA Director-General Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said yesterday morning, adding that the agency awaits the center’s approval.
Since last month, there were nine quarantine breaches involving crew members, seven of which were voluntarily reported by airlines, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
The center is reviewing rules that the CAA has proposed for airlines, which detail management’s responsibilities in ensuring that crew member quarantines are strictly enforced, Chen said.
“We are considering reducing the home quarantine for cabin crew members from seven days to five if there have only been isolated breaches, but they would need to observe self-health management guidelines for nine days,” Chen said, adding that the center should be able to announce details next week.
Relaxing the quarantine requirement for crew members should not cause public concern as long as the cabin crews and airlines strictly practice disease prevention regulations, Lin said, adding that the breaches recorded so far have been minor and unintentional.
For example, crew members were asked to stay in their hotel and not to go out when at overseas destinations, but one crew member was locked out of their room when they went to use a vending machine and forgot their key card, Lin said, adding that the person broke the rules about not leaving the hotel room.
Another crew member thought the quarantine was finished after being tested at a medical facility on the seventh day, so they drove to a gas station, he said.
Crew members who break the quarantine rules face a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,539 to US$35,391), Lin said.
Offenders have an opportunity to explain their situation and fines are based on the severity of the breaches, he added.
“We hope that the relaxed quarantine rules for cabin crews can take effect as soon as next month, as the nation will once again have transiting flight passengers from Monday,” he said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft