Meanwhile, five more imported cases reported today—all migrant workers, all asymptomatic:
Guy
I might have had praised Taiwan too early. The other press release they announced today is this:
Which means positives will still not be able to board? How can they publish 2 opposite press releases on the same day? Is it a type of hedge of words? Does the CDC lawyer know law at all?
The 1st press release says you can board and enter the country, and now the second press release says you need 2 months and 2 consecutive negative tests after the onset of the disease, which basically doesn’t change anything from the announcement on 11/18.
Taiwan is not alone with this, Australia is now looking about demanding Negative tests as a requisite for boarding any aircraft bound for Australia.
They released the English version of the press release:
So basically no change since the other press release on 11/18.
They say without a test you can still enter, which means they are just passing the ball to the airlines and having the airlines to deny boarding without the test then instead of the government denying entry themselves. What a circus!
“The CECC explained that if travelers are unable to provide a COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued with three days of boarding and come to Taiwan without meeting the above-mentioned requirements, such travelers shall still sit in a designated area on the flight as arranged by the airline they fly with and shall undergo the specimen collection procedure at their own expense upon arrival; moreover, such travelers may not apply for disease prevention compensation after entry. They are also subject to a fine between NT$10,000 to NT$150,000 pursuant to Articles 58 and 69 of the Communicable Disease Control Act.”
So you can get on an aircraft without the Covid-19 test, but if you arrive in Taiwan without it you are subject to a 10-150k fine.
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And if you find to be positive upon test on arrival because you didn’t bring your test with you will be prosecuted CRIMINALLY. Did you catch that at the end of the press release?
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The CECC explained that if travelers are unable to provide a COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued with three days of boarding and come to Taiwan without meeting the above-mentioned requirements, such travelers shall still sit in a designated area on the flight as arranged by the airline they fly with and shall undergo the specimen collection procedure at their own expense upon arrival; moreover, such travelers may not apply for disease prevention compensation after entry. They are also subject to a fine between NT$10,000 to NT$150,000 pursuant to Articles 58 and 69 of the Communicable Disease Control Act. If such travelers are diagnosed with COVID-19 and are at risk of infecting others, related criminal liability shall also be imposed on such travelers.
Seems totally reasonable. If you don’t qualify for one of the exemptions and decide to travel and refuse to get a test and test positive on arrival and are found to have endangered others, why shouldn’t you be held criminally liable?
The exemptions cover emergency situations, countries where self-paid tests are not available, and official programs managed by the government/CECC.
It’s not like they’re going out of their way to turn people into criminals. They’re just reasonably raising the stakes for the selfish assholes who think it’s cool to hightail it back on commercial flights once they know or suspect they’re sick.
I’d also add that the situation with the man from Ghana also shows that the government is not even looking to prevent people who are sick from coming back. They just don’t want those people boarding commercial flights without disclosing the fact that they’re sick.
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Yeah, I agree, especially after people have already had 10 months to scuttle back without consequences.
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I know that it’s been popular to stick the boot into Taiwan Citizens who have been overseas for long periods to suddenly hightail it back to Taiwan when any sort of symptoms show up. Quite rightly so too.
But, it seems that a large percentage of cases over the past few months have been from foreign workers from a few countries to the south of Taiwan, and those areas should be the first to have the rules in regard to tests before boarding tightened up.
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I’m baffled how Taiwan comes in third in this ranking. NZ, almost 7,000 miles away from China and a mere 4.5M people, somehow is deemed better performing. This kind of analysis shakes ones confidence in Bloomberg’s talent
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I get the spirit of this comment, but I think the issue here is that the Taiwan authorities know that testing capabilities in those countries are simply not up to speed. Hence additional measures taken after migrant workers from certain countries arrive—quarantine in central facilities followed by testing even when asymptomatic. Many (perhaps even most?) of Taiwan’s recent imported cases have looked like this…
Guy
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Any country with as fucked up a response to the Wuhan virus as the U.S. is in no position to be passing judgment on countries that have gotten it right.
The rationale with Bloomberg’s Positive Test Rate Percentage rating is that a high rate of positive tests indicates that the “government is only testing the sickest patients and there are high levels of undetected infection in the community.”
Apparently Taiwan’s claim that no one has died from Covid-19 since May is only because high levels of deaths are going undetected in the community.
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Won’t happen! There is a big push to get “care takers” from Indonesian into the country before January 1st as Indonesian is taking steps to reduce the exploitation of citizens by Taiwanese (brokers).
I’m sorry…what deaths are these to which you refer?
Do you mean those bodies lying in the street I stepped over on my way to work?
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Cos…China.
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among 90 confirmed cases in October and November, 54 cases are foreigners. Including Taiwanese, 57 cases are from SEA. Iicc
Workers from SEA are anyway managed by MOL, better than Taiwanese, as for quarantine.
Recent numbers of entering people are ~45000, and more than half are Taiwanese. The number will increase in coming months. A large percentage of cases would become from returning Taiwanese again.
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I think there needs to be a thread dedicated to vaccines. This will change everything eventually and I would like to know and discuss various aspects of this, such when my family here and overseas can start to get vaccinated.
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I think there will be a lot of demand here for the vaccine.
A dilemma to decide who gets it first.
Morally it should be old folks who are at higher risk of dying.
Economically it should be the work force, so they don’t need to quarantine if there is an outbreak.
And the medical staff should be vaccinated first of all. We need them when shit hits the fan.
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The Taiwan authorities have already stated their planned priority list for vaccination. I listed it above in post 585.
Cheers,
Guy