Well in some countries on departure they scan the QR code. Taiwan announced their passes to be compatible with the EU covid pass, you would expect them to scan the passes too and check for date and name to be correct.
That should be very straightforward.
I doubt many people travel with a fake certificate, except some real fake ones from data breaches that pass the scan. It’s one thing to use a fake cert at s bar or some place where you can just turnaround and walk out again than trying to cross a border.
In Austria on departure they scanned both test and Vaccine passport. I think in Istanbul they scanned the vaccination passport but only looked at the test. In Taiwan on arrival, Nada.
Btw, over the last two years due to traveling I have passed over 30 PCR Tests, and maybe 10 rapid tests. All negative. But I also never had a cold, I think as long as you don’t have a cold false positive is very rare. With fold they could be quite common (10 percent?).
I’ve met many people using fakes, but I think all of them would not show a fake on crossing borders by plane. By car many did (Photoshop change date and or name…). But I don’t know anyone who paid for buying a fake. It’s usually just your friends one photoshopped and qr code destroyed. You must be really stupid to buy a fake. Police and so on are also selling fakes to catch people. Also people got blackmailed for buying fakes and the seller wanted money for not telling that you bought it from him… Drug dealers seem to be way more trustworthy than fake covid certificate sellers, and I would not consider drug dealers trustworthy…
So i doubt that even 1 percent of people arriving in Taiwan use fakes. And then maybe half of them do so because they haven’t yet received their test report… Actually if important, like going to Taiwan, I would take two free PCR Tests in Austria because sometimes one gets lost… though you could try departing without test and convincing the airline the test results will arrive before landing… That would be airline policy then if they let you board or not.
The problem is an existential one though. If COVID is never getting eliminated, at some point we have to choose between opening borders or trying to stay a COVID-free prison forever. Of course QR systems, indoor masks are fine, but what’s the endgame to Taiwan staying closed? At some point it will “rip” here whether we want it to or not.
Agreed, at some point. That point being later rather than sooner if possible as we will be better prepared, more solutions available and better understanding of the virus is gained.
I feel like this is as good as it’s going to get. We have effective vaccines, we have anti-viral treatments, we have tracing capability and QR tracking systems, we have a variant that’s the weakest one yet (90% less deadly than Delta in one study)… what else are we waiting for?
That is what I’m wondering about. Turton argues this:
That history suggests that it will be possible to return to some level of “normal” in the future when vaccinations are mandatory for all and medical science possesses an armory of reliable and inexpensive weapons against this disease.
That time certainly isn’t now.
My impression is that there are better treatments coming along - some that exist now, for example, aren’t as available as they will be in a few months, but as you write in other regards there’s not that much more that can be done. I personally think getting more of the elderly cohort vaccinated should be the main priority.
I wish I knew more about possible ways to “gradually” let the virus in.
Once again, I suppose the relative lack of news about cases and transmission chains is a good thing.
Following up on yesterday’s cases and where they presumably caught the bug, emphasis added:
Among the new cases, eight are linked to a Tasty Steakhouse branch in Taoyuan’s Zhongli District, suggesting that a cluster that emerged after the restaurant hosted a year-end celebration for a group of employees from Union Bank’s Jianxing branch in Zhongli has continued to spread. …
Investigations continue for the other two new cases, said the CECC, which revealed that one of the two is a disease control worker at the Taoyuan airport. …
The final domestic case reported Sunday is a Taoyuan resident who went to a local COVID-19 test station for a voluntary check after finding out that her daughter was a possible contact of one of the confirmed cases.
That last one is worrying. Voluntary check because their daughter was “just” a possible contact - that’s a couple of steps for possibly more widespread transmission there.
In selfish news, I’m relieved that we’re apparently going to get through final exams - ending tomorrow - without any disruption.
The only number that really disturbs me in the +17 of community spread.
The 48 caught at the airport and in quarantine doesn’t seem like such a big deal.
But that 17, could be 170 by tomorrow.
My family cancelled LNY dinner the day before yesterday out of an abundance of caution. Too bad because LNY with my family is awesome and nothing like many of you have described on numerous occasions.
Brian Hioe isn’t live tweeting the pressers nowadays, so this is the person to follow if you want details as they come. The hospital worker in Taipei is probably the most concerning.
it’s all going as expected. They don’t test a lot so are way too late to find unrelated cases. It will still be low numbers for some days - maybe 5-6 then suddenly jump over 100 and then the situation is clear.
Contact tracing with omicron flu is not gonna work anymore. Time to drop the level and wait if hospitals fill up - which is unlikely. Educate the Taiwanese about omicron being just a flu.
Last year we were struggling to get our PCR test infrastructure in place, barely managing 5000 tests a day at one point.
Now we have testing in a relatively good place, but we’re dealing with a completely different monster that’s much more capable of transmission. I think it’s just a matter of time…
Enjoy these next few days until they lock everything down again I guess -_-
