Taiwan May Allow Quarantine Free Travel From July From Select Countries

Taiwan, which has been mostly closed for international arrivals from March 2020 or with a lengthy quarantine, is signaling that it might relax entry requirements from July.

The covid infections are on the rise in the country, and likely, in a month or two, the number in Taiwan will be roughly the same or higher than in other developed nations.

Then Taiwan would allow arrivals without quarantine from countries with a similar or lower epidemiological situation over the past 14 days.

Excerpt from Focus Taiwan:

Taipei, April 18 (CNA) Taiwan could begin allowing quarantine-free entry from July for travelers from countries with similar rates of COVID-19 infection, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Monday.

If the seven-day or 14-day infection rates are the same on both sides, “there can be (quarantine-) free travel,” Chen said at a legislative hearing, when asked by lawmaker Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) if current entry regulations might be relaxed by the start of summer vacation in July.

And from Taiwan News:

Chen said Taiwan’s current infection rate is far lower than that of many other countries, standing at 140 COVID cases per million. In contrast, Japan’s rate is 5,000 per million, while 32% of people in South Korea have been infected with the virus.

Chen observed that infections are declining in many countries as Taiwan sees a rapid spike in cases. By July, Chen predicted that the rate of infection in Taiwan will match that of a number of countries, at which time Taiwan can start ending the mandatory quarantine for visitors from countries with similar infection levels.

Conclusion

Like many countries in Asia, Taiwan handled the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic well but has greatly struggled to try to reopen the country.

Allowing fully vaccinated business and leisure visitors wouldn’t significantly change the numbers in the country, and there is plenty of local transmission of the virus on-going.

Let’s hope that they proceed with this plan and relax it further, as most of the other Asian countries outside China and its satellites and Japan have fully reopened.