Taiwan is in March to reopen its borders to about 5,000 international language students who do not have the Ministry of Education’s Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, the ministry said.
The new regulations are to apply to non-scholarship students wishing to study Mandarin in Taiwan for at least six months, and universities can start making applications on behalf of students from Feb. 14, the ministry said.
The entry dates have been scheduled to avoid an influx of passengers around the busy Lunar New Year holiday travel period, the ministry said.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
Eligible students must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken within three days of boarding their flight, and must also take a polymerase chain reaction test upon arrival and before the end of their mandatory 14-day quarantine, it said.
After quarantine, students would be required to follow self-health management guidelines for another seven days and take a rapid COVID-19 self-test before they can enter a school campus, the ministry added.
Following a surge in local COVID-19 infections last year, Taiwan from May 19 banned all arrivals except for citizens and legal residents.
International students who have been accepted to programs lasting a year or more are usually eligible for an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), and as they can only apply for and obtain an ARC while in Taiwan, the restrictions mainly affect newly enrolled students who are still overseas.
Taiwan in August last year granted entry to international students without an ARC, although only to those enrolled in degree programs at Taiwanese universities or who were granted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Taiwan Scholarship or the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship.
Currently, non-scholarship language students are barred from entering Taiwan, regardless of the length of their program.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese