The COVID-19 testing requirement for travelers from China is to be lifted from Tuesday next week and the testing guidelines for all inbound international travelers during the self-disease prevention period is to be eased to only taking an at-home rapid test when symptoms occur, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday.
Shortly after former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) took over as the new premier yesterday morning, he visited the CECC to learn about its COVID-19 surveillance and response operations.
Chen said the world now has better control over the COVID-19 situation and the number of new infections is falling, and that the CECC would continue to monitor the outbreak in China, so he and CECC officials discussed easing masking rules and border control measures.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, announced that starting from Tuesday next week, the testing requirement for travelers from China — either on direct flights from four major cities in China or through the special direct travel program between China and Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu — would be removed.
The pre-departure negative test result requirement for travelers from China transiting through Macau or Hong Kong is also to be lifted from Tuesday next week, he said.
Wang said the reasons for removing the testing requirement include that the positivity rate of travelers from China had dropped, from more than 20 percent when the program started on Jan. 1 to an average of about 2 percent last week.
While conducting genomic sequencing for detecting possible new high-risk variants was the main purpose of the testing program, the decline in the number of positive cases leads to fewer samples for genomic sequencing, he said, adding that no new dangerous variant had been detected and the vast majority of travelers who tested positive had the Omicron BA.5 or BF.7 subvariants of SARS-CoV-2.
Wang said the requirement that all inbound travelers are required to take a rapid test every two days if they go out during the seven-day self-disease prevention period after arriving in Taiwan would also end on Tuesday next week and they would only need to take a rapid test if they develop symptoms.
Following the revised testing guidelines, the free at-home rapid test kits offered to inbound travelers at airports and harbors would be reduced from four kits to one kit, for use when symptoms occur, and they can purchase more test kits at pharmacies if needed, he said.
Wang said the revision was made because no new variant of concern had been detected and imported cases only accounted for about 0.4 to 2.2 percent of new daily cases in Taiwan.
Airport quarantine stations would continue to screen for travelers with symptoms, he said.
As further easing the masking rules would affect many aspects of people’s daily lives, the plan was to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting yesterday and the CECC would publicize the plan later this week.
Taiwan yesterday reported 32,023 new domestic COVID-19 cases — an increase of 118 percent compared with the same day last week — 264 imported cases and 32 deaths.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS