The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed an announcement by Singapore that it is to lift border restrictions for travelers from Taiwan from Friday next week, saying that it would help promote potential “travel bubbles” between the two nations.
The reopening would encourage the resumption of people-to-people and bilateral trade exchanges, the ministry said, thanking the Singaporean government for affirming Taiwan’s achievements in containing COVID-19.
Taiwan earlier this year exported to Singapore nonwoven fabric for mask production, and donated medical-grade masks and N95 respirators, showing that disease prevention knows no borders, it said.
Photo: CNA
Singapore is listed as one of 16 low-risk nations by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Singapore’s new policy of testing travelers from Taiwan rather than requiring home isolation would build mutual trust and would be beneficial for the two nations to assess the possibility of promoting “travel bubbles,” the ministry said, adding that it is cooperating with the CECC on related policies.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore yesterday said in a statement that, with immediate effect, visitors from Taiwan can apply for an Air Travel Pass for entry into Singapore on or after Friday next week.
Applicants must have been in Taiwan for 14 consecutive days prior to entering Singapore, it said.
They must undergo a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test upon arrival and, if the result is negative, they would be allowed to go about their activities in Singapore without a need to serve a stay-home notice, it added.
The Singaporean agency praised Taiwan for its comprehensive public health surveillance system and successful containment of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the CECC said that a Taiwanese woman who lives in the US and had returned to visit family was yesterday’s only new confirmed COVID-19 case.
The woman, who is in her 20s, arrived in Taiwan on Monday last week and was tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday after developing a runny nose and an abnormal sense of smell on Monday, and the result came back positive yesterday, the CECC said.
To date, Taiwan has recorded 725 cases of COVID-19, 633 of which were classified as imported. Of those, 595 have recovered, seven have died and 123 remain hospitalized, CECC data showed.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching