So perhaps the Government should save their money and end the Vaccination program immediately then.
Not for much longer. NZ and Australia were the holdouts and they are going to open soon. They have given up on the covid zero fantasy. Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, pretty much every place is opening up, reducing QT to not more than 5 days, realizing they are going to use vaccines and live with it. It really will be Taiwan/HK/China as the only ones who won’t move forward. It seems a lot of the general pop and even many of the expats on this forum are really happy that way. I have friends that live in Taipei that are just happy to stay home and not travel but they also haven’t known anything different for the last 3 years. No basis for comparison I suppose. That’s fine for them but it’s really concerning for those of us that are coming there with our families when there appears to be no end in sight.
The link to the stringency index seems pretty inaccurate. It would imply that the US has requirements that are over twice as stringent as Taiwan and that is definitely not the case right now and hasn’t been for a while! No data was entered for Taiwan since January 16. Maybe they think no one thinks about Taiwan so they won’t notice. If they stay isolated no one really will think about it I suppose!
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I was really wondering about that silly rule. How many couples can find a flat with two bedrooms and two bathrooms in the city? I would imagine that is about as rare as a fully equipped Western kitchen in a city like Taipei.
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We’re not isolated, people come and go from the island if they want to. It is a bit inconvenient to come in, but very easy to leave.
You can’t see that far into the future. There are recent developments in other countries and things can change here, too. We’re still on holiday in Taiwan, still looking at a mild outbreak, and still not sure what will happen in other countries that are just opening up. Makes more sense to revisit this in a few weeks or months, but there have already been hints at relaxing restrictions if things go well for us Nobody here wants to go back to closing the schools and restaurants and everything, or having a lot of people get sick.
Will this be your first time living and working in Asia?
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I have only traveled through Asia prior to this yes. I spent a few months traveling through China, Thailand, Laos. I have spent quite a bit of time in Japan.
I will admit I was really hesitant to accept this job because I am wary of the seemingly endless restrictions in Asia. I had actually initially said no to any offers in Asia. But the savings potential will be good for me. Just hoping that something changes for the better in the next 9 months but the more I read the more discouraged I am getting. We will see!
That does nonetheless have the effect of making Taiwan isolated, though, as evidenced by the dramatically decreased passenger numbers over the last two years. A couple of people here have written about the difficulties that this has created doing business, their companies considering moving their regional offices out of Taiwan, and so on.
Sure, you did it, and people can still come and go if they really want (and are citizens, residents, etc.). People can also go to, say, Tristan da Cunha if they want, but it’s still isolated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
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I imagine this is probably a global trend. Is there anywhere that has seen increased passenger numbers in the past two years compared to before?
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I imagine it’s a global trend too. Obviously nowhere has seen increased passenger numbers, presumably, though I’m not sure everywhere is down like 98% in international arrivals since the pre-plague years (that’s comparing >50 million for 2016–2019 and ca. 1 million for 2021; seems to have been −85% and −88% year-on-year decreases for 2019 and 2020, respectively) and staying there into 2022.
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Do gyms have a vaccine mandate yet?
It already is.
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Yep, but try telling that to the CDC.
They will hold on as long as they can, but they won’t lock things down again. They know it’s inevitable.
I’m almost ready to join that crowd. I’m really grateful for the time that we bought here in Taiwan, but after everyone has been given a chance to get boosted, it’s time to move on. We’re delaying the inevitable. Thank God that the inevitable now is omicron. All good. But I don’t want too much more of the rules.
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I agree. It’s all out of whack.
Maybe not CECC, but I’m worried about rogue Mayors. Our Mayor just shut down all kindergartens for a week, which I suppose isn’t a huge deal in itself but I don’t trust him not to extend it again in a week.
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That’s actually much lower precaution than the previous two years, where winter break was extended by two weeks across the country (in the public schools)
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It is only the private ones he is fucking really. The public schools were scheduled to start on Friday anyway. So a one day delay for them.
Yeah, this. Nobody seems to be pointing out that the Mayors (well, most of them) are not doctors and don’t have the legal right to arbitrarily tell people when they can and can’t open their businesses - and this isn’t the first time they’ve done it. The CECC, likewise, has no legal right to tell the mayors that they can make up their own rules. The CECC mandate is very narrowly limited to the control of infectious disease. They don’t have carte blanche to rule by fiat.
They seem to be competing with each other to see who can be the most “tough on COVID”.
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It is a big deal for parents who need to work starting this Monday.
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It was apparently in coordination with Taoyuan. As far as I know, they are the only two municipalities who have made this move.
Source: More cases, but no higher risk: CECC - Taipei Times
Guy
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