Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says thorough prevention measures are imperative to establishing any new travel bubbles with other countries. Under a travel bubble agreement, two countries allow people to cross their borders with dialed back COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.
Taiwan and its ally in the Pacific, Palau, launched such an agreement in April, but had to suspend operations in mid-May due to an outbreak in Taiwan. Authorities say the Taiwan-Palau travel bubble may resume later this month amid a downward trend in Taiwan’s daily confirmed cases.
Minister Chen says that the COVID-19 Delta variant has changed the nature of the pandemic. Cases of the more transmissible variant have spiked in countries around the world, straining medical resources worldwide. Chen says that Taiwan should maintain its strict controls at the country’s border to avoid a similar fate.
Chen says that if the government plans to establish travel bubbles with other countries, then proper protocols must be in place to ensure that COVID-19 remains under control in Taiwan.