Given the concentration of positive cases found on arrival from the Philippine and Indonesia, I wonder if yet again we’re dealing with some document fraud to get the workers on those planes?
Guy
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It’s possible. However it may also be that the tests don’t work, either at this end or at that end. There was apparently a similar issue with a French flight - it’s not just S.E.Asia.
Even if passengers were being issued with false-negative tests on boarding, observing anything higher than the background rate of infection in the originating country upon landing is highly improbable, particularly in the case of very short flights. I can’t think of any explanation other than a very high false positive rate in Taiwan.
AFAIK the CECC are still accepting very high Ct values as a valid positive, and are apparently not doing proper confirmatory tests. That pretty much guarantees that the test results are more noise than signal. And I’m sure they know that.
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I never wear a mask in my car when I’m alone or with my wife. Stupid.
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Oh, you just don’t understand … hold on, no, you totally DO understand Taiwanese culture. Good question - how can that have been left off the list?
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I want my two minutes reading that article back. I scanned for this important bit of information twice but saw nothing about toasting.
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And 66.67% of passengers on one flight from the Philippines? tested positive. Mind you, only 3 passengers on the flight and 2 were positive. And yes, looks like some ‘fraudulent’ test results are being ‘bought’ in those two countries - why are we not surprised.
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I drive a car more than ever now. No mask and less exposure to illness. That’s not great for the environment but Taiwan’s rules make driving much more appealing.
I avoid busses and use Uber much more too.
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There isn’t enough data in that chart to conclude that source-country testing is fraudulent. Given the background rate in the Philippines and France at the moment (a couple of percent, tops) it’s far more likely that the tests in Taiwan are fraudulent.
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Fraudulent yellow vax cards are available for purchase in some of the local industrial areas, especially the complexes that require two doses to enter and work. Last I heard they go for a few blues, but since I’m fully vaxxed I have no need to inquire further. Apparently a lot of these construction workers have no desire to get vaxxed with many being into TCM.
Fraudulent negative PCR tests were available, but once vax was widely available the negative PCR test is no longer required but instead the yellow vax cards.
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I hope they come with stickers on your NHI card, and the digital one.
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Taiwan requires that anyone boarding a flight to Taiwan has to produce a certificate showing a Negative PCR test taken within 3 days before departure at the time of check-in for the flight. Last year some Employment Brokers in Indonesia were put on a ‘black list’ due to the number of their ‘clients’ testing positive after arrival in Taiwan. Such Brokers of course get their income from providing workers to Taiwan and thus would have a vested interest in the tests being negative.
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I’m not discussing new migrant workers, instead local tech’s, engineers, laborers and foreign workers that have been here for quite some time.
And regarding the digital pass, most of these complexes, especially the ones that require vax status, have a very strict no-smartphone devices (safety/security reasons) allowed policy Can’t provide a digital passport with a flip phone or old school Nokia, and that is what we all carry when working.
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Seems we are following different paths, my comments are in relation to the linked post above from afterspivak - which was about new arrivals testing positive at the Airport - not about Vaccination Status.
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I’m so happy for those wealthy few who have the luxury of travel to Taiwan now…
God forbid the CECC even hint at a possible timeline for the rest of us pleasants.
Pheasants?
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Anyone know if this applies to students? They’re the ones being harmed the most by mask mandates.
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Fake news (or otherwise) about how “masks harm students” might better fit into the masks thread:
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Makings of a good chant there.
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