😷 COVID - Covid Quarantine Regulations

For that, vulnerable people’s 2nd shots should be prioritized than 1st shots of young healthy people.

Sure! Can’t argue with that.

Fwiw, it seems olympic athletes were tested daily. So (combined with lunlan’s post) any athletes coming back to Taiwan are fully vaxxed, have been tested every single day while at the Olympics, still do 7-day quarantine, and then tested before going home.

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That’s no different than any fully vaccinated individual coming to Taiwan from places like the US – already fully vaccinated, negative test before departure, another test upon arrival. (could then test on day 7 of quarantine). This should be extended to everyone with double vaccination arriving in Taiwan or no one at all. Olympic athletes are MORE likely than the general population to have COVID, given Tokyo’s completely messed up handling of everything and the lack of a vaccine requirement. There WILL be break through cases with the athletes, just as there was with the pilots. I guarantee it.
Edit: I complained to 1999. I doubt they’ll tell the Olympians that now they need to quarantine for 14 days instead of 7 (or allow vaccinated arrivals to quarantine for only 7 days) but I hope to cause some serious loss of face for whatever morons decided this was a good idea

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Maybe. I don’t necessarily disagree with you but just pointing out there is a difference since the general population is not required to get covid testing daily.

The 2020 NBA bubble season was pulled off without a single positive covid result, also utilizing daily testing. Of course that was a far more controlled experiment than what the Olympics is (by a long shot), but just pointing out that it worked and that was back when there was no vaccine.

and I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but if you want to enter Taiwan right now, three days before your flight, you need a negative test. When you arrive at the airport in Taiwan, you take another test. On day 12 (?) of quarantine, you take another test. You come out at midnight on the 15th night and then there’s still 7 days where you’re not supposed to go anywhere. Testing hardly needs to be done daily if you’re not coming in contact with any other humans because you’re locked up; it only needs to be done when potentially COVID-positive humans are going to be in contact with other humans.

At the olympics, TONS of people who, for whatever stupid AF reason were able to skip quarantine, tested positive AFTER running around the olympic village and potentially infecting others. This is pretty much the opposite of the NBA bubble, where there were NO exceptions to the rules for ANYONE. The NBA bubble worked, the olympics approach failed.

doubt you’ll see any quarantine exemptions anytime soon, BUT Taiwan is going to have to get more lax at some point, best case scenario January…Maybe reduce to like a 7 day quarantine?

Are you sure about the 3-days before the flight part of your testing list? The way I read the restriciton is that ARC and Taiwan Passport holders don’t need it which at the moment means practically all arriving passengers.

Maybe someone else said this, but in the US and elsewhere vaccine cards are really easy to fake. I can’t see Taiwan accepting them to reduce quarantine in the future. I guess they’d probably still have to accept them for employment. I do think once Taiwan is mostly vaccinated the picture will change.

No, you still need a negative COVID test within three days of arrival: Entry restrictions and quarantine requirements for entering Taiwan | China Airlines

  1. All passengers (included Taiwanese) travelling to/from Mainland China are required to present the COVID-19 tested negative certification within 3 days (72 hours) prior to departure.
  2. All passengers (Taiwanese nationals or foreign nationals with ARC) coming to Taiwan are required to provide a certificate of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued within three days (flight schedule time) prior to boarding the flight to Taiwan. Passenger shall provided relevant documents (ex passport) to prove PCR test report belong to the traveler.
    Please note the following certificate requirements:
  • Passenger name (identical to passport name)
  • Date of birth (or passport number)
  • Date of the specimen was taken for test
  • Test methods: PCR, real-time PCR, RT-PCR, RT-qPCRQuantitative Reverse Transcription PCR), NAA (nucleic acid amplification), NAAT (nucleic acid amplification test), NAT (nucleic acid test), LAMPLoop/Mediated isothermal Amplification)COVID-19 RNA test, SARS-CoV-2 RNA or molecular diagnostics indicating a negative or undetectable test result.
  • Date of test report issued
  • In English or Chinese or other local languages (if it can be verified by local airport team at point of check-in)
  • Electronic or physical copy are acceptable
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On Timatic (which is the system airlines use to check what documents are needed it says the below. Updated 27th of July last time. China airlines does require the test but for example Turkish airlines does not.

FROM TIMATIC BELOW
Passengers must have a negative COVID-19 test result issued at most 3 working days before departure from the first embarkation point. Tests accepted are: LAMP, NAAT, PCR, RNA, RT-LAMP and RT-PCR. Details can be found at https://www.cdc.gov.tw/Category/MPage/XQ9r73gXAgEfJZV9zm6gaA .
This does not apply to passengers with a Chinese Taipei (on the cover: Republic of China Taiwan) passport.
This does not apply to passengers with Alien Resident Certificate.
Passengers with a Chinese Taipei (on the cover: Republic of China Taiwan) passport without a negative COVID-19 test result issued at most 3 working days before departure from the first embarkation point:

Look at Q9 here: FAQs - Taiwan Centers for Disease Control

Yes, you can fly to Taiwan without a PCR test. IF IF IF the airline consents. But even if the airline lets you on, if you don’t meet one of the four special conditions, prepare to be FINED after arrival.

Plus, everyone has to do a PCR at the airport. It’s free for most. But according to the website, they’ll charge you if you didn’t get one before your flight. Well, Taiwan’s paid PCR test is expensive. So just get the PCR test before your departure and save yourself a lot of worry and potential financial penalties.

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It’s only a matter of time before Taiwan will allow easy entry for fully vaxxed people (from a few select countries at first probably).

Interesting, my take away from the article was a little different. My understand is that Taiwan is willing to die on the hill of quarantine is 100% required even if it hurts the local economy and foreign relationships because Zero Covid is the mission

I think we’ll find out very soon since I believe 60% fully vaxxed will happen by the end of the year as promised. And in a strange twist, the delay in vaccination is turning out to be a godsend: research is showing a delay in the second shot is hugely beneficial for the delta and other variants (not that it’s necessary in Taiwan but it will further boost confidence). And then let’s not forget the antiviral medicines that are looking extremely promising. Taiwan is in the last stages of the procurement process for the Merck drug.

Everything put together and I really feel that Taiwan will open its borders for the double vaxxed (again at least from a few select countries at first) sooner than most expect at the present time.

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I also think they will open up by December or January. After vaccinations started 3-4 months later than in Europe, they kinda accrued over 4 months delay - now it’s slowly catching up. By mid December I think everyone who want to be vaccinated in Taiwan will be fully vaccinated - Well at least if Moderna supply doesn’t dry up - as lots of people will be waiting for a second Moderna shot. Pfizer/AZ/Medigen should be no problem in supply, or are already available to anyone.

There won’t be a good reason to wait longer than late December/January. And yes it needs to be announced like 1 to 1.5 months ahead to push vaccinations. It will happen very soon that Taiwan has too many vaccines on hand - then another 4-8 weeks, and opening should happen. Else it’s too expensive. By the end of the year we will rather be a 75%/70% - maybe even 80/75 (if so many people are willing to be vaccinated- in all countries as soon as supply outgrew demand the motivation to get vaccinated dropped).

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I have my eye on 7th of Feb as the day they will open fully, a gut feeling with no science to back it up, just the lunar calendar.

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It would be wise to wait until the exact date no Taiwanese will bother coming back for the new year, because it will be over. Will give everything the chance to brace itself for the sudden influx of tourists (that won’t be coming in droves if CNY is over)

But still open for the lantern festival with is not as big but a good pressure test for the system.

I don’t think that will be happening for a while.

Guy

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