One adult and one child among 231 Taiwanese who late on Monday returned to the nation after being stranded in China’s Hubei Province due to the COVID-19 pandemic were hospitalized with respiratory infections.
A government-contracted China Airlines flight carrying 193 adults and 38 children arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9:21pm, the Border Affairs Corps said yesterday.
After landing, the 231 passengers were examined at a provisional health station at the airport, and the two who had symptoms of the disease were immediately sent to a hospital in Hsinchu for complete diagnosis and treatment, it said.
Photo courtesy of a passenger
The child was accompanied to the hospital by her mother, it added.
The other passengers were transported to designated facilities for mandatory 14-day quarantine to prevent them coming into contact with local residents, the agency said.
All would be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours, in line with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s standard practice, it said.
The airplane was taken to a Taiwan Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Co hangar for disinfection, it added.
It was the first of two special flights scheduled for this week by the Straits Exchange Foundation.
The second flight was last night scheduled to depart Shanghai carrying another 230 Taiwanese.
Hundreds of Taiwanese were stranded in Hubei after its capital, Wuhan — the epicenter of China’s COVID-19 outbreak — was sealed off on Jan. 23 and much of the province was locked down a few days later.
Due to disagreements between Taipei and Beijing, only three charter flights were organized to evacuate Taiwanese from the area before the province lifted restrictions on outbound travel on March 25 and Wuhan lifted its lockdown on April 8.
Since the lockdowns were lifted, Taipei has insisted that people returning from Hubei undergo special procedures, such as pre-boarding health checks, when returning to Taiwan rather than simply taking commercial flights.
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