Health officials are preparing a new quarantine measure that will require foreign visitors to undergo different levels of quarantine.
Centers for Disease Control（CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang said on Monday that Taiwan is looking to set varying levels of quarantine requirements for foreign visitors, depending on which country they arrive from. Visitors from countries like New Zealand and Palau, which have very few COVID-19 cases, will only be required to monitor their health after arriving in Taiwan.
Visitors from low-risk countries, such as Vietnam and Brunei, would only have to undergo a 5-day quarantine. Countries like Japan, Australia and Thailand would represent the next level of severity, and visitors from those countries will have to undergo longer quarantine periods. Chuang said each country’s category will be determined by the number of new cases that country has seen in the past two weeks and the prevalence of testing there.
Taiwan currently has closed its borders to foreign visitors and requires all arrivals to undergo a 14-day quarantine. The majority of Taiwan’s COVID-19 cases have been imported.
Taiwan will also lift a ban on transit passengers soon. Officials said that they will map out a specialized path for transit passengers at the airport by this week.
Recent media reports say that Japan may begin allowing tourists from certain countries in. The list of countries Japan is considering has not been finalized, but Taiwan is not on the initial list. Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it is speaking with Japan about getting Taiwan on the list.
As the world gradually reopens, some locations are opening up to foreign visitors. Guam and Palau will begin welcoming visitors from Taiwan. France and England are allowing visitors from each others’ countries, while Germany said it would like to see the travel ban in the EU lifted by mid-June.