Taiwanese who had been stuck in China’s Hubei Province due to the COVID-19 pandemic returned to Taiwan late on Sunday on a special flight and are now in quarantine, the Central Epidemic Command Center said.
The 153 evacuees arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 10:20pm on a government-
contracted China Airlines flight that departed from Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 8:58pm, the center said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, yesterday said that the flight was delayed slightly, but the screening procedures conducted after the passengers disembarked went relatively smoothly, taking only about 1.5 hours.
They were taken to a quarantine center to begin 14 days of mandatory isolation, Chen said.
After the passengers were settled at the quarantine center, Taoyuan General Hospital deputy superintendent Chen Ri-chang (陳日昌) and six physicians went to their rooms to perform COVID-19 swab tests, with the procedures completed early yesterday morning, Chen said.
The specimens were sent to ministry’s lab in Taipei and tested immediately, he said, adding that although three specimens were flawed and more were taken, the results of the other 150 people were negative for COVID-19.
Taiwan’s Border Affairs Corps said that 159 Taiwanese in Hubei had reserved seats on the flight, but some of them failed to make it to Shanghai in time, while a few others were not allowed to board because their travel documents had expired.
It was the first of two special flights contracted by the Straits Exchange Foundation to bring home Taiwanese in the Chinese province, where restrictions on outbound travel were lifted on Thursday last week after several weeks of lockdown due to the pandemic.
The second flight was scheduled to depart yesterday afternoon, with those with reservations required to make their own way to Shanghai.
In other news, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said that Taiwan had planned to donate 10,000 protective gowns to China, delivering them on an Eastern Airlines charter flight, but the plan fell through when the airline did not have enough time to make the necessary preparations.
The flight was the first evacuation of Taiwanese from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus emerged, bringing back people who were stranded there after the city was sealed off.
The Eastern Airlines flight arrived in Taiwan on Feb. 3 and Taipei had intended for the 10,000 protective gowns to be placed on the plane for its return to China, MAC Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said.
However the airline felt “it did not have time to undergo the necessary procedures” and so declined the gowns, he said.
The issue has not been raised again during the two sides’ discussions on additional charter flights, as there have been many other matters to deal with, he said.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
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