Starting today, arrivals on long-haul flights must wait for the results of COVID-19 tests before finishing airport entry procedures, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The center also reported six locally transmitted cases of COVID-19, possibly linked to the airport cluster, and 26 imported cases.
As more than two dozen local COVID-19 cases have since Monday last week been reported among workers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and their close contacts, as well as a few people likely linked to them, the center on Sunday said that entry quarantine procedures would be revised.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, yesterday said that the entry quarantine procedure would be tightened from midnight.
People arriving on long-haul flights would be required to take a government-funded rapid polymerase chain reaction test and wait for the results before finishing their entry procedure, he said.
“‘Long haul flights’ refers to those arriving from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
Arrivals who test positive would be processed away from other travelers, with special personnel inspecting their documents and a separate exit leading to an ambulance, which would take them and their belongings to a hospital, Chen said.
Those who test negative would be allowed to go through normal entry procedures, and take a disease prevention vehicle to a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility, he added.
“We hope to move the ‘line of defense’ to the front line to reduce the risk of infection during the entry process,” Chen said, adding that hopefully the policy would lower the infection risk of disease prevention taxi drivers, frontline airport workers and quarantine staff.
“As the incubation period of the Omicron variant [of SARS-CoV-2] is much shorter, we believe a large proportion of infected travelers will be detected at the airport under the new policy,” he said.
Chen said that he visited Taoyuan airport yesterday morning to check the redesigned passenger routes and waiting areas.
The changes ensure that passengers from different flights do not wait in the same areas, and the center checked air ventilation and disinfection measures at the testing and resting areas to prevent the risk of cross-contamination, he said.
“We urge inbound travelers to cooperate with airport staff, and avoid walking around while waiting for the COVID-19 test and for the result,” he added.
One of the six local cases confirmed yesterday was a family member of case No. 17,369 — a member of the Golden Voice Social Club, who was in close contact with an infected airport cleaner at the club, Chen said.
Two other local cases are airport workers who handle baggage carts, he said, adding that one of them carpools with three colleagues, one of whom is a previously reported case — case No. 17,473, another airport worker who handles baggage carts.
The two other people in the carpool group have tested negative, but are in home isolation, he said.
Another local case is a child who is the son of an infected couple — case Nos. 17,473 and 17,472, Chen said.
A classmate at an after-school childcare center also tested positive for COVID-19, he said, adding that the children attend different elementary schools, where classes have been suspended for 14 days.
The boy’s elder brother did not test positive, but the center asked the junior-high school he attends to suspend class for one day as a preventive measure, Chen said.
The sixth local case is a friend of case No. 17,472, a personal care aide, who they visited for about 30 minutes, and was therefore tested as a close contact, he said.
The sixth case has a daughter, and her junior-high school was also asked to suspend classes for one day, he added.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS