The nation is still short 1,483 disease-prevention taxis to take Taiwanese returning home for the Lunar New Year holiday to quarantine facilities or homes next year, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) said yesterday.
Data from airlines showed that about 26,000 Taiwanese are scheduled to enter the nation from Jan. 3 to Jan. 16.
On average, 1,857 travelers are to arrive daily during the two-week period, but the number could reach 2,100 on peak days.
Photo: CNA
To expand the capacity of quarantine hotels during the holiday, the Central Epidemic Command Center has slightly relaxed quarantine rules by allowing inbound travelers to quarantine for 10 days at a hotel and four days at home, or seven days at a hotel and another seven days at home if they are fully vaccinated.
However, travelers still need to take the disease-prevention taxis to go from airports to quarantine hotels or government quarantine facilities, the highway agency said.
Travelers also need to take taxis to return home from quarantine hotels and take polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests once they complete their quarantine, it said, adding that all of these factors would triple demand for disease-prevention taxis.
The agency estimated that the nation would need 2,245 disease-prevention taxis to accommodate travelers arriving before the holiday, but there are only 762 nationwide.
Aside from Taoyuan, which has enough disease-prevention taxis to meet its estimated demand, the other five special municipalities are short of vehicles, the agency said.
Taipei’s disease-prevention taxi fleet needs to be expanded from 30 to 800, while the number of New Taipei City’s disease-prevention taxis should increase from 25 to 250, it said.
The agency said that the number of disease-prevention taxis in Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung should increase to 270, 60 and 85 respectively.
Some local government officials are seeking to reduce the workload of taxi drivers by arranging disease-prevention shuttle buses to take travelers to quarantine hotels or PCR test centers, the agency added.
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