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CECC eases restrictions on foreign visitors, extends mask mandate
Courtesy of ICRT
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) will be partially lifting restrictions on the entry of foreign visitors from 1 March.
Under the new policy, foreign nationals without residency permits will be allowed to enter Taiwan for reasons excluding tourism, as long as they receive advance permission from Taiwan's overseas representative offices.
Indonesian migrant workers will continue to be banned from entry, as the Ministry of Labour has not yet reached an agreement with the Indonesian government on issues related to their entry.
Chinese nationals with Taiwan residency, their spouses and children will be allowed entry and residents of China, Hong Kong and Macau will also be allowed to enter Taiwan for humanitarian reasons, medical purposes or if they are students.
People from China, Hong Kong and Macau who apply to enter under special circumstances will also continue to be given consideration on a case-by-case basis.
The centre will also be allowing transit flights through Taoyuan International Airport, but such transits will only be allowed for connecting flights operated by the same airline group and with a maximum stopover time of eight hours.
And in related news, people who attend large gatherings will continue to be required to wear face masks and banned from eating or drinking anything other than water.
According to the CECC, those found to be in violation of the policy will face a fine of up to NT$150,000.
The policy was implemented on 24 December and originally set to end on 28 February.
However, the government has opted to extend it indefinitely due to the transmission of new variants of the coronavirus.
Large gatherings are defined as "events where there are large amounts of people and social distancing cannot be easily maintained," with no specific definition regarding the number of attendees.
