Arrivals from Myanmar to face stricter quarantine rules
ROC Central News Agency
07/16/2021 06:09 PM
Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwan has added Myanmar to its list of high-risk COVID-19 countries, meaning that travelers arriving from there will be quarantined in government-designated quarantine facilities for 14 days.
Given that Myanmar reported almost 4,000 new COVID-19 new cases on July 7, compared with fewer than 50 per day in early May, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) decided to place it on the "high-risk" list, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Friday.
Myanmar has reported more than 200,000 COVID-19 infections and over 4,000 deaths, with a positive test rate of over 30 percent, according to Chen.
The Southeast Asian country was added to a list that already included Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, Peru, Israel, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
The CECC announced in late June that starting June 27, travelers who had visited or transited through those countries in the previous 14 days before arriving would have to stay at central quarantine facilities for 14 days upon entering Taiwan, with their accommodation costs covered by the government.
Arrivals from other countries can stay in group quarantine facilities or in a quarantine hotel for the 14-day quarantine, but at their own expense.
The new measure was intended to curb the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in India.
Many of recent wave of new cases in Myanmar were the Delta variant of the virus, Chen said.
(By Chang Ming-hsuan, Chiang Hui-chun and Evelyn Kao)
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