Teachers banned from travel to any country

This might be in or get moved to another of the big threads, but I’m probably not the only one who avoids those and this is important for a specific group.

The last article from CNA only refers to Taipei and NTaipei. There is nothing about how this is enforced and the premiere didn’t respond to a question about punishment, but rumors around the web say returning teachers or students will be automatically self-quarantined even if the country they travel to isn’t on a restricted list.
It’s not mentioned if this includes buxiban teachers, but it’s possible because one article says emergency travel has to be approved by the Dept. of Ed, and buxiban teachers have their work permits through that. APRC-holding teachers wouldn’t, so who knows?

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Here is a list of each local government’s restriction.
I think the central government says it is legal till mid-July.

I read that all foreign nationals are barred from entering Taiwan now. Not sure if that broad statement covers foreign residents who leave and return. Not the time to be traveling anyway. Taiwan is the safest place if you don’t own your own island.

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It does not include APRC holders. However, you are right NOT the time to travel.

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I got the feeling that the rule is not enforced through tracking. I could be wrong, but I suspect it will be based on community reporting for now. But now that everyone returning is getting quarantined, they will probably get all your data and know you’re a teacher.

What is the immigration hotline I can call?

Probably you want the Information for Foreigners number from the NIA. Someone else might look it up for you, but until then just google for it.

I found out recently that if you have an ARC, you are still allowed to leave Taiwan, but during this time as the COVID-19 pandemic is still going, you will still have to be quarantined for 14 days. As long as you have an ARC or APRC as a foreigner, they can still let you back into Taiwan, given the fact that you already have a place to live where you can self-isolate for 14 days.
I am not expecting the borders to be opened and quarantines to be lifted by Chinese New Year 2021. But hopefully by next summer things will go back to normal.

The way USA handled the pandemic?

I suspect the restrictions will continue for years.

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We must contain them. Build a wall around them or something :grin:

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Actually, look for mask rules to loosen before thinking any travel restrictions will lift.

If we’re still required to wear masks going into the MRT, buses, even supermarkets, and no sign of it loosening anytime soon, what makes you think travel restrictions will loosen?

World leaders hoped that things would get better because of hotter weather, and this past summer has not proven that.

The restrictions will continue for years if Donald Trump is still the US president. But with Biden leading and the ballots not yet counted, I am sure that if Biden wins, the efforts to fight COVID-19 will be more aggressive to a point that the restrictions will be lifted sooner than you think.

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Without a vaccine, it will be years before restrictions are lifted. Even with a vaccine, I still think they won’t be lifted straight away. Logistics aside, a lot, maybe even the majority of Taiwanese won’t want any new vaccine that hasn’t been tested on a large scale, especially if its from the US. The recent Korean flu vaccine deaths, even if they weren’t caused by the vaccine itself have really hurt the public perception of vaccines in Taiwan.

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Biden isn’t some magic cure to COVID. Plenty of very capable world leaders have failed to halt the spread of the virus one bit. Also, I’m not saying Biden is capable.

Build a wall around them? Not here in Taiwan where we are more than 10,000 miles away from the USA. If you suggest building a wall against the USA, perhaps you should suggest that to Canada and Mexico. (But Mexico is worst off than Canada with the COVID-19 cases).

It was meant as a joke. Trump’s wall reverse UNO :wink:

Try going to the Falkland Islands, or St. Kitts and see how they have 0 cases of COVID.

Places that had very little Chinese tourism such as the Falklands and Taiwan can’t be compared to the US and the rest of Europe. It was easy for Taiwan to control COVID because in 2019 it was extremely difficult for Chinese tourists to come to Taiwan, therefore there wasn’t much of an initial spread. By the time COVID had spread around the rest of the world, Taiwan had already closed its borders stopping an import of cases from other countries. Taiwan was smart and handled Coronavirus well, but it had an advantage to begin with. Suddenly having a slightly more competent president isn’t going to solve the US’ COVID crisis.

How much Chinese tourism was in countries like Laos or Cambodia? Laos got only 27 cases with 24 recovered, and Cambodia got 287 cases, with 260-270 ad people recovered and no deaths in either country. They did better than Taiwan, you don’t suppose those two southeast Asian countries restricted Chinese citizens from entering their countries?

I don’t know, did they? Also, in my opinion, you can’t trust that the government are detecting or announcing all cases in third world countries like Cambodia/Laos.

I don’t even really think Taiwan is detecting all cases with the tiny amount of tests they have done/are doing.

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