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.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
RSS