Three applications for eased quarantine restrictions have been received from overseas family members of victims of the Taroko Express No. 408 crash, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) spokesman, said yesterday.
The center on Sunday announced that relatives of crash victims flying to Taiwan would face fewer entry and quarantine restrictions than other arrivals.
The accident killed 50 people and injured 200. The deceased include a French national and two Americans, while two Japanese, a Chinese and an Australian were injured.
A visitor from the Netherlands arrived under the eased regulations on Monday, while two from other countries were expected yesterday and another today, Chuang said.
Upon their arrival, the visitors receive assistance from separate personnel, and are directed to separate transportation, testing and quarantine locations, he said.
The center said that the relatives arriving in Taiwan do not need to provide the normally required negative COVID-19 test result before their departure.
When they arrive, those without symptoms are tested at Taoyuan General Hospital and then transported to their quarantine location of choice, it said.
Relatives who test negative on the day of their arrival and during their first four days of quarantine can apply to visit injured family or make funeral arrangements in the two days after they receive the results, it said.
They can leave their quarantine location once per day for up to four hours, excluding travel time, the center added.
Relatives who show symptoms upon arrival are tested and sent to a government quarantine center, it said, adding that they can similarly apply to leave quarantine once they have two consecutive negative results.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS