The Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to next month reopen Taiwan’s borders to all visitors and lift the quarantine mandate for arrivals, provided the nation’s COVID-19 situation does not escalate.
The changes are likely to take effect on Oct. 13 as part of a phased easing of border controls that is to start on Thursday next week when a negative polymerase chain reaction test result would no longer be needed, Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) told a news conference.
Arriving travelers would instead be given four rapid antigen home test kits, Lo said.
Photo: CNA
The three-day quarantine requirement followed by four days of mandatory self-health monitoring would be in effect until Oct. 13, he said.
However, the rule would on Thursday next week be relaxed slightly, with arrivals being allowed to quarantine in a residence occupied by others as long as they have a room of their own with a bathroom attached, Lo said.
If the COVID-19 situation does not worsen, mandatory quarantines would be scrapped on Oct. 13, and travelers would instead be asked to monitor their health for seven days after arrival, he said.
The weekly cap on arrivals would be raised to 150,000, Lo said, adding that this would include tour groups.
Tourists from countries with which Taiwan has no mutual visa-waiver program would no longer be excluded, he added.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, said if the number of daily COVID-19 cases starts rising again, the quarantine requirement might be retained.
In a radio interview earlier yesterday, Wang said the mask mandate might gradually be lifted for outdoor spaces and select indoor spaces, but would remain in potentially crowded places such as on public transportation.
Travel Quality Assurance Association spokesman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said the tourism industry welcomes the announcements, but the government should implement measures to ensure a smooth transition to the new policy.
“The government should raise the weekly cap on arrivals, allow airlines to raise the number of international flights to Taiwan and lift the ban for travel agencies to organize package tours. These supporting measures would give travel agencies more flexibility when they arrange inbound or outbound tours,” Lee said.
The government should also step up tourism marketing targeting foreign travelers, he added.
Taiwan should offer travel insurance similar to that offered in Japan, covering tourists’ expenses should they contract COVID-19 during inbound or outbound trips, Lee said.
Phoenix Tours general manager Benjamin Pien (卞傑民) said the inbound and outbound tour markets would probably recover to 50 to 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of this year.
It would take another six months to a year for the markets to fully recover, he added.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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
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
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
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
RSS