Nearly 99 percent of aircrew members working on long-haul international flights at Taiwan’s two largest airlines have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
Of the 10,222 pilots and flight attendants at China Airlines Ltd and EVA Airways, 9,131 work on long-haul international flights, with 9,015 of them having received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Monday, CAA data showed.
The remaining 116 pilots and flight attendants have refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for various reasons, from personal health issues to insistence on a specific vaccine brand or a mix of brands, Flight Standards Division Director Wu Chia-jen (吳家珍) said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
Twenty-two of them have yet to receive their first vaccine dose, he said, adding that they would be required to follow disease prevention regulations stipulated by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The agency helped the two airlines get their cabin crew members vaccinated as Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) instructed last week, Wu added.
Except for those declining to be inoculated, China Airlines completed aircrew vaccinations on Thursday last week, while EVA Air is expected to finish by Friday.
Long-haul crew members who are fully vaccinated and test positive for antibodies must quarantine for five days and follow stricter health management guidelines for another nine days upon completing their flight duties, the center said.
Those who have yet to be vaccinated or have only received one dose must quarantine for seven days and follow stricter health-management guidelines for seven days, it added.
Crew members returning from the UK, India, Indonesia, Israel, Myanmar and other nations with a high risk for contracting COVID-19 must quarantine for 14 days, the center said.
“We are aware of discussion about whether pilots and flight attendants should get a booster shot, given the health risks involved in their line of work — we would defer the issue to the CECC and follow its instructions,” Wu said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS