Regulations on applications for entry to the nation by foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese have been relaxed effective immediately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported two new local and three imported cases of COVID-19.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said the relaxation meant that such applications would be treated as general cases, instead of special ones that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
“Considering the recent local COVID-19 situation and the needs of foreign spouses and children to visit their family in Taiwan, we are allowing Taiwan’s overseas representative offices to approve such applications as general cases,” Chen said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of the Interior
“The policy also includes spouses and minor children from China, Hong Kong and Macau,” he added.
When a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert was issued on May 19, foreign nationals without a valid residence permit were temporarily banned from entering Taiwan.
They were only allowed to apply for a special entry visa after being granted special permission by the CECC for emergencies or on humanitarian grounds.
Under the new policy, foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese can directly apply for a dependent visa or a family visit visa at Taiwan’s representative offices, and receive a special entry permit visa, the CECC said.
Dependent visas that were due to expire between May 19 and yesterday would be automatically extended until Dec. 31, it said.
Reporting on the latest domestic COVID-19 cases, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that one of the local cases is a woman in her 50s who lives in Taoyuan and is the wife of a previously confirmed case, who is linked to the preschool cluster of infections in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋).
The other case is a woman in her 60s who lives in New Taipei City and is the grandmother of a confirmed case — a student at a junior high school in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), who was infected with the Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2, Chen said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that genome sequencing of a virus sample from another case in the preschool cluster showed that the person was infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
However, genome sequencing of the virus samples from two other cases associated with the cluster — a foreign national who is the father of a preschool student and an anesthetist who lives in the same building — failed to identify the virus strain, as the viral loads of the two cases were too low, he said.
So far, 21 cases associated with the preschool cluster have been confirmed as being infected with the Delta variant, CECC data showed.
The CECC also reported three imported cases from Japan and the US, and no COVID-19 deaths.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
RSS