Say that you won’t let or want anyone out of the country without saying you won’t let or want anyone out of the country: no more home quarantine.
I bet almost everyone who wanted to go abroad will think twice, 3, 4 times before heading abroad now than going and risk not having an available and decent hotel room to quarantine in.
Yeah, I think you’re right. (And it definitely applies to my ever-shifting summer plans!) Canada instituted an expensive forced-hotel stay policy a couple of months ago, and are now loosening it: sure, there were health reasons for it, but I always suspected the main goal was simply to discourage people from coming and going. (Especially spring breakers who wanted to head for Mexico or Florida.)
There’s some logic to it, but damn it’s frustrating to see North America and Europe open up as Taiwan shuts down.
As someone asked in another thread - sorry, forget who - I wonder what’ll happen when Delta (or Gamma, or whatever’s next) becomes the main variant everywhere.
Belgium opened borders to Taiwan without even a test requirement anymore. You can just hop in a plane and go. France is removing all restrictions of movements for travelers from Taiwan, Germany opened borders to Taiwan. As I was getting happy to go abroad and escape this mess they announced this no home quarantine thing. The risks are great now. Think about coming back and no hotel room available or some windowless hotel in Pintung or something as your only choice. Anyways, there goes summer plans. Again.
Well as someone who went abroad primarily to get vaxxed, I’m actually even more relieved that I left when I did. The decision to end home quarantine, if anything, is just more likely to delay my return to TW, even though I do think there’s a risk that maybe in the near future TW could make it even more difficult to come back.
Understand that not every expat in TW has the luxury of staying away but here are my thoughts:
Given breakthrough cases being seen in places like Israel, I’m betting there’s a 50-50 chance we’ll see boosters being recommended/required in the coming months. TW is having enough problems getting people their initial 2 doses. If you add the need for a booster to the mix, it could be a long road for TW on the vaccine front. Going back to TW just to leave in a few months for a booster would suck.
If Delta gets into TW, I’m thinking it could be really problematic given TW’s use of AZ. AZ has good efficacy against Delta in terms of hospitalization and death endpoints after 2 doses but since you have to wait 8-12 weeks to get the second dose, we’re talking 2-3 months where even partially vaxxed people are at higher risk of getting and spreading the virus. That’s compared to 3-4 weeks for a full BnT or Moderna series. I also wonder if the hesitancy against AZ could increase if/as people become aware of this fact.
TPTB in TW seem prone to making questionable decisions that aren’t exactly science-based. They seemed spooked by Delta which could make things interesting (not in a good way). I mean, putting Israel on a list of 7 high-risk Delta countries seems kind of dumb given that the number of cases in Israel is still in the low 100s. Delta has been detected in 85 countries (it’s probably in way more that aren’t aggressively sequencing) and we know it’s on pace to become the dominant strain in countries like the US in the coming weeks. So the high risk countries list is in and of itself already pretty pointless.
People are afraid of delta simply because of the mass number of deaths in India. But I really don’t know if delta is actually deadlier than the other strains or it’s simply because India has really poor pandemic response and unsanitary conditions…
The key is to avoid the crowds. I left Taiwan in late March to get the Pfizer vaccine and am returning in mid July to a four star quarantine hotel in downtown Taipei. Getting out of quarantine August 1st so I’m counting on you knuckleheads to get things back to normal by then.
I think that governments and people are afraid of Delta because there is some evidence that it is more transmissible than the previous strains. There is quite a lot of information out there about this but here’s one article:
Maybe it’s a bit more virulent, but I suspect the deaths are primarily a function of how efficiently it spreads. A virus can’t kill a person it doesn’t infect.
But that’s still bad news for TW. If you look at TW’s neighbors, the CFR in TW is pretty high.
Singapore - 62,493 cases, 35 deaths (0.05% CFR)
HK - 11,905 cases, 210 deaths (1.7% CFR)
Vietnam - 14,323 cases, 14 deaths (0.09% CFR)
Japan - 791,000 cases, 14,551 deaths (1.8% CFR)
Malaysia - 717,000 cases, 4,721 deaths (0.6% CFR)
Thailand - 233,000 cases, 1,775 deaths (0.7% CFR)
Taiwan - 14,465 cases, 610 deaths (4.2% CRF)
Now you could say that something must be wrong with the numbers. Maybe other countries are undercounting deaths. Maybe TW is missing a lot of cases.
But these are the official numbers.
I attribute Taiwan’s high CRF to it being a densely populated, super-aged country.
That tone is not likely to help get what you want. 
Guy
Does anyone know how the quarantine in government facilities work? I am flying out next week to the UK and coming back mid August. Once I am back can they take me away for the quarantine to the very south although I live in north? I do hope these rules will change by then. Last year I did my quarantine in my flat and would like to do it again. Thanks.
Would assume they can put you anywhere based on availability.
I came from the UK in February. After we got through customs we were greeted by a quarantine team who took us to a cordoned off area (just for arrivals from high-risk countries) where we could buy phone cards.
Then we were taken to fill out a type of consent form, agreeing to the rules of staying in a government quarantine facility (I’m guessing if you refuse they put you on the next plane back). When I was filling it out I asked them where our quarantine facility would be and they said Hsinchu. Then, without me saying anything else, they added “It’s not like a prison” and laughed nervously. Which didn’t exactly fill me with hope. So no, I don’t think you get a choice. They probably allot certain flight arrivals to a particular facility on a given day, depending on availability. I have heard somewhere that if you have a real issue or grievance with wherever they put you, you can ask for a change one time. Don’t know if its true though.
Anyway, the room I got was enormous, I think it might have been some kind of military academy building that normally had 4-5 people per dorm. Overall, I was pretty impressed with what I got there. The bed was a bit stiff, the food wasn’t great (standard bento box fare), and I was woken up before seven every day by a loud tannoy announcement telling us all to report our temperature, but it was all free and you were allowed to order food in from Carrefour or PC home. You could probably order a more comfortable mattress if you wanted. Before arriving I was pretty nervous about it but it actually worked out much better for me than paying a fortune to stay in a quarantine hotel. You do have to pay for your trip back to wherever you live in Taiwan though.
I don’t understand why couples can’t stay in the same room at a quarantine hotel…
(i) The possibility of one person infecting the other during quarantine and the second person then remaining infectious after the 14 days.
(ii) Two times the quarantine hotel fee equals more money than one times the quarantine hotel fee.
What if they made you cough and sneeze into each other’s faces before starting quarantine and increased the fee by 50% lol
Now that people aren’t traveling domestically as much, the quarantine requirement is a domestic tourism stimulus.
I knew the rules would change but I thought for the better since the situation improving.
I’m starting to question why I’m running a business in Taiwan.
I’ve got a 50ping two floor 3bed/2bath apartment so I had hoped husband and I could quarantine together. We are vaccinated of course.
I guess my husband can stay in the US until Taiwan gets it’s act together with these ever changing rules… At least, he’s free to do things here as everything is open.
We still have until July 21st before our flight and rules change daily depending on political needs. Fauci 2.0.
Yeah life in the US is pretty good right now while TW does the chicken with its head cut off dance. I’m increasingly tempted to stay in the US for awhile and if TW doesn’t get its act together soon, ditch my ARC and check out other countries. On a personal level I enjoy life in TW a lot but there’s competition for location independent professionals even in COVID times.
Thanks a lot for the info.
I only hope the rules will be reversed by mid August so I will be able to complete quarantine in my flat.