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| A woman receives a booster shot of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Taipei main station ahead of Lunar new year in Taipei, Taiwan, January 24, 2022. (Photo by=REUTERS/Ann Wang) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] TAIPEI: Taiwan aims to ease its strict COVID-19 quarantine policy from next month as it needs to gradually resume normal life and reopen to the world, the government said on Monday (Feb 14), Reuters reported.
Since the pandemic began two years ago, Taiwan has succeeded in keeping reported cases of COVID-19 below 20,000, having enforced a blanket two-week quarantine for everyone arriving on the island even as large parts of the rest of the world have ditched theirs. Speaking at a meeting with senior health officials, Premier Su Tseng-chang said that even though there could be further domestic infections the government was "quite confident" in its anti-epidemic measures. "The government must also take into account livelihoods and economic development, gradually return to normal life, and step out to the world," his office cited him as saying.
Taiwan has never gone into full lockdown during the pandemic and has never closed its borders, though arrivals have generally been limited to citizens and foreign residence permit holders. Chen said business travelers will be able to come again and will have to do the same 10-day quarantine, but he could not offer a timeframe on allowing tourists back in. Meanwhile, about 30 percent of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have now had a booster dose, a figure that is gradually rising, and the government has said it wants to get that to 50 per cent before easing entry requirements.
