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No timetable on easing quarantine requirements
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) says it plans to revise two current border regulations before lifting the quarantine requirement for arriving travellers.
According to center spokesman Zhuang Ren-xiang, the first step will be to cancel the requirement that foreign nationals take a PCR test within 48-hours of their flight to Taiwan while the second will be amend the "one person per residence" rule for the quarantine and self-initiated epidemic prevention protocol to "one person per room." Zhuang says the government will only move "gradually" towards implementing a "0 7" quarantine policy after both of those changes have been implemented.
However, the timing of any revisions to current border regulations will be dependent on other factors, such as an expected rise in BA.5 variant cases and the vaccination rate among young children. Zhuang says the centre will consider further easing border regulations when at least 50% of young children have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Data shows that as of this past Monday, only 12.1% of children aged between 6 months to 5 years had received a shot.
The CECC reported 22,044 new coronavirus cases and 42 deaths on Sunday. Of that number, 273 of which are imported infections. New Taipei once again recorded the highest number of new cases, with 4,040. That was followed by Taichung with 2,675 and Taoyuan with 2,343 cases.
Health officials say 34 previously reported cases have now been listed as severe, while 53 others have developed moderate symptoms. Of the just over 4.6 million domestic cases reported in Taiwan this year, 9,718 have been classified as severe infections and 12,037 as moderate. The remainder were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.
The 42 deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s. All suffered from chronic illnesses or other severe diseases, while 19 were unvaccinated.
