The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is discussing the possibility of allowing people abroad who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 — including with Chinese vaccines — to spend less time in quarantine after arriving in Taiwan, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
In an interview published yesterday in the Chinese-language United Daily News, Chen said that the center is considering reopening the nation’s borders in two stages based on vaccination coverage rates in Taiwan.
The plan for the first stage, when the coverage rate is relatively low, is that inbound travelers can apply for a seven-day quarantine if they have been inoculated overseas, including with Chinese vaccines, but approval would be based on the result of a mandatory COVID-19 test, the minister said.
Photo: Reuters
In the second stage, when the vaccination rate is more than 60 percent, inbound travelers might be exempted from compulsory quarantine, but the decision would be made according to the situation then, he said.
When asked for confirmation of the comments, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, yesterday said that the policy is being discussed, but there are scientific and technical challenges.
Asked whether China’s Sinovac vaccine, which was reported to have only about a 50 percent efficacy rate, would also be recognized, Lo said that the policy is to recognize “the fact that the individual has been vaccinated against COVID-19 in another country,” so it would not target any particular vaccine.
The law bans the government from purchasing vaccines manufactured in China, but the planned policy would not exclude travelers who received them, either in China or elsewhere, Lo said.
However, while Chinese vaccine manufacturers have released their own reports, so far final results of phase 3 clinical trials have not been published in accredited international medical journals, and none of them have been authorized by the WHO, the European Medicines Agency or the US Food and Drug Administration, he said.
Therefore, the plan is for inbound travelers who submit proof of having been vaccinated overseas to get paid-out-of-pocket tests after seven days of quarantine in Taiwan and be released from quarantine if the results are acceptable, he said.
The tests would include a polymerase chain reaction and antibody tests, Lo said, but added that there are scientific and technical challenges over how to set standards for antibody tests to ensure that the result indicates that an individual has enough protection against COVID-19.
CECC specialists are still collecting data for further discussion, he added.
Separately, Huang Li-min (黃立民), head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s pediatrics department and a specialist in infectious diseases, said that several countries that have administered the Sinovac vaccine are still finding it difficult to control their COVID-19 situation, so recognizing Chinese vaccines might be risky.
Asked about the proposed policy, a 28-year-old woman surnamed Chen (陳) said that she does not believe in the efficacy of Chinese vaccines, so people who have been given them might risk infecting people in Taiwan.
The center should not risk the health of people in Taiwan to show friendliness toward China, she said.
Additional reporting by Yang Yuan-ting
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS