Nearly 40 percent of the nation’s imported COVID-19 cases were intercepted at the border, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, adding that maintaining strict border controls remains an important policy.
The center would only consider reopening the border if the nation’s disease situation remains stable after domestic restrictions have been lifted, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the center, said at the center’s daily news briefing in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwan on March 19 banned the entry of all foreign nationals, with the exception of Alien Resident Certificate holders, members of diplomatic missions or representative offices, those honoring a business contract, and people granted special permission by Taiwan’s representative office in their home nation.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
While the Ministry of Education had proposed that the government allow the entry of overseas students from nations deemed to be less at risk of COVID-19, a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday did not reach a conclusion.
The center would not prioritize the entry of overseas students, Chen said when asked about the issue yesterday.
Those visiting on trade or medical missions are prioritized, he said, adding that special permission is still given on a case-by-case basis.
Given that there is still a need for strict border controls to prevent imported cases, the center, which is operating at level 1, would not be downgraded to level 2 or level 3 for the foreseeable future, Chen said.
The center yesterday did not report any additional COVID-19 cases.
The nation has reported 443 cases with seven fatalities — 352 imported cases, 55 local infections and 36 infections originating from the navy’s “Friendship Flotilla” — while 429 patients have been discharged from hospital after treatment, center data showed.
Of the 352 imported cases, 39 percent, or 138 cases, were intercepted at the border, including the nation’s first confirmed case — a businesswoman flying from Wuhan, China, on Jan. 20, said Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), the center’s deputy head.
Since the coronavirus outbreak began, 6,000 people with possible COVID-19 symptoms have undergone testing at airports and ports, while the center has issued nearly 150,000 home quarantine notices, Chen Tsung-yen said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration and airlines are discussing adjusting the routes within airports to separate tourists transiting in Taiwan from inbound tourists, Chen Tsung-yen said when asked if the center is planning to lift the ban on flight transfers, which was implemented on March 24.
Whether to lift the ban on flight transfers could be discussed when those plans are ready, Chen Shih-chung said.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported