Taiwan plans to introduce a “strengthened” version of its self-health management guidelines for travelers with more text message checks in a bid to reduce the risk of more imported cases of COVID-19.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), on Saturday said that the center plans to introduce automatic text message checks as part of a “strengthened” version of the guidelines, as well as penalties for those who fail to reply to text messages or disclose symptoms of illness.
The CEEC has developed operational procedures for the new guidelines, Chen said, but he did not say when they would be implemented.
Currently, travelers entering Taiwan from nations or areas under a Level 3 warning must undergo 14 days of home quarantine, while those arriving from all other countries are required to conduct self-health management for 14 days by minimizing time spent in public, wearing a mask and checking their temperature twice daily.
Under the new measures travelers would receive a formal notification to observe self-health management for 14 days, during which time authorities would check on them via text messaging, according to a procedural chart the center released on Saturday.
People who believe they have symptoms of the virus would need to send messages to arrange for treatment, while those who fail to reply to either text messages or telephone calls would be referred to the police, the chart showed.
The government is also looking at the possibility of waiving home quarantine regulations for foreigners from nations and areas under a Level 3 travel warning who want to make a short business trip to Taiwan, Chen said.
Such visitors might be tested upon arrival for COVID-19 at their own cost, he said.
Asked about enforcement of the government’s travel restrictions, Chen said that healthcare personnel can view the travel history of Taiwanese or foreign residents by scanning their National Health Insurance cards.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS