The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is to propose changes to quarantine measures for long-haul flight cabin crew members today, after the current measures were found to be difficult to enforce.
Long-haul flight crew members must quarantine for five days in a designated hotel or at home, if they live in a one-person household, and manage their health for another five days.
Airlines are required to dispatch personnel to inspect whether crew members follow home quarantine rules, including watching short-haul flight cabin crew members take rapid tests for COVID-19 through videoconferencing.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The most recent rule update took effect on Monday last week. Previously, long-haul flight crew members had to quarantine for five days at designated hotels and observe self-health management rules for another nine days.
Since the new rules took effect, some crew members have said that airlines do not have the same legal authority as police or government officials, questioning whether they can legally check on their employees who quarantine at home.
As airlines were concerned that some employees might contravene the rules, they have denied crew members’ requests to quarantine at home and asked them to quarantine at hotels.
Four pilots from EVA Airways and China Airlines have filed a lawsuit against their employers at the Taoyuan District Court, asking to be allowed to quarantine at home. The court ruled in their favor.
The CAA on Tuesday and Friday last week met with representatives from the two airlines and Pilots Union Taoyuan to discuss changes to quarantine rules, the agency said.
They reached an agreement that airlines or local civil affairs officials should inspect crew members at least once during their home quarantine, the CAA said.
Those living in rural areas should be inspected through videoconferencing, it added.
However, airlines should be allowed to conduct random inspections at their homes or via videoconferencing, the agency said, adding that each week, 20 percent of those who have applied for home quarantines multiple times should be subject to inspections, or airlines should be required to inspect the homes of at least three crew members per day.
Instead of watching cabin crew take rapid tests through videoconferencing, they should be allowed to take pictures of themselves taking the tests and send them to airlines.
The CAA said it respects the court’s ruling, adding that it would continue working with airlines to enforce home quarantine rules in accordance with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s instructions.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS