Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Friday that Taiwan is making plans to end its mandatory quarantine for all...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Friday that Taiwan is making plans to end its mandatory quarantine for all new arrivals earlier than planned. This comes as the government continues to ease restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Taiwan has kept its entry and quarantine rules even though most of the rest of Asia has loosened or gotten rid of them. However, in June, it cut the number of days that newcomers had to stay in isolation from seven to three.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been more than 5.7 million cases in Taiwan. The more contagious Omicron variant is to blame. Since more than 99% of them have no symptoms or only mild ones, the government has loosened rules instead of making them stricter in its "new Taiwan model," but it hasn't said when quarantine rules might be thrown out.
So, he said, even though the number of cases was slowly going up at the moment, that was what he thought would happen.
He told reporters, "We are also getting ready for a steady opening up with all ministries and departments."
"If we can keep an eye on it for the next two weeks and our predictions come true, if the number of cases goes up slowly and then goes down, we can open up earlier."
This week, Chuang Jen-hsiang, the deputy director-general of Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control, said that it was possible that the quarantine rule would be completely lifted next month.
Taiwan started letting people from the US and Canada into the country without a visa again this week. However, they still have to take a PCR test when they arrive, and there is still a limit of 50,000 arrivals per week.
Since most people in Taiwan have been vaccinated, they no longer have to get a negative PCR test before leaving the country.
During the pandemic, Taiwanese citizens and foreign residents were never told they couldn't leave and then come back. Instead, they had to stay at home or in hotels to avoid spreading the disease.
Before the pandemic, Taiwan was a popular place for Asian tourists, especially those from Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.
