Starting today, foreign travelers who have visited India in the past 14 days, but do not have a valid Taiwanese resident certificate would be temporarily banned from entering Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The announcement came after the center on Sunday said that all travelers who have been to India in the past 14 days, including transit passengers, would be placed in 14 days of centralized quarantine upon entering Taiwan, starting today.
They would also be required to take a mandatory polymerase chain reaction test for COVID-19 upon ending quarantine, and practice seven days of self-health management if they test negative.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
The CECC also announced new disease prevention measures for flight crew members, after more than two dozen confirmed cases have been reported among China Airlines (中華航空) cargo pilots and staff at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, as well as their family members, since last month.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, last week said that the infection source might be flight crew members of foreign airlines who stayed at the hotel, where many China Airlines crew members have been quarantined upon returning to Taiwan.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is deputy head of the center, said that the new policies aim to clearly separate the flight crew members of Taiwanese airlines from those of foreign airlines, as they are subject to different quarantine rules.
All crew members of foreign airlines would only stay in one designated hotel during their layovers in Taiwan, he said, adding that the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and the Taoyuan City Government would choose the hotel, he said.
Quarantine dormitories for crew members of Taiwanese airlines would be chosen by the CAA and operated by Novotel following disinfection, Chen Tsung-yen said, adding that the hotel would need to apply to the Taoyuan City Government for approval.
The CECC has asked the CAA to help Taiwanese airlines inspect the overseas layover arrangements of their crew members to avoid unnecessary exposure to local ground crew or hotel staff, he said.
It also asked the CAA to supervise the airlines to thoroughly monitor their employees’ health conditions, report symptoms and disinfect their shuttle vehicles, he said.
The airlines would also be asked to evaluate whether they can allow crew members to report for duty online or separately, he added.
Separately, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that Taiwan has done a good job of fighting COVID-19, but there are a few flaws that could be improved, including different quarantine rules for airline crew members and arriving travelers, and not separating personnel and spaces at quarantine hotels.
Flight crew members should also be quarantined for 14 days, or they should be required to get vaccinated to have shorter quarantine periods, he said.
The cluster of infections linked to China Airlines and Novotel was caused by the same mistake that caused an outbreak at Taoyuan General Hospital earlier this year, Ko said.
Quarantine hotels and designated COVID-19 hospitals must separate their employees into groups that only work in designated areas to avoid cross-infection, he said.
Asked for comment, Chen Shih-chung said the quarantine policies can be further discussed with specialists, the CAA and the airlines.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RSS