Taiwan to end mandatory quarantine for arrivals in October

Taiwan is all set to open its borders by ending mandatory COVID quarantine for arrivals from next month, the Government said.

As per the reports, the island has kept its borders largely closed, and imposed strict quarantine measures throughout the COVID pandemic, which helped it to keep the infection numbers lower, even at the expense of being internationally cut off. Also, if reports are to go by, the government started to shift from its zero-COVID strategy from April onward once its population was well vaccinated.

Revealing more about the future plan, cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng quoted Premier Su Tseng-chang added that from October 13, authorities will eliminate quarantine and ask arrivals to self-monitor for seven days.

Currently, visitors are required to undergo a mandatory three-day hotel quarantine, which is then followed by four days of self-monitoring, where they are expected to avoid crowded places.

Lo further added that they will resume visa-free travel for travellers from certain countries from September 29, and that the ban on tour groups will also be lifted in October.

The spokesperson also added that the new measures will facilitate the public to fully return to normal life, as Taiwan also gets ready to open its door to welcome back tourists.

However, some tourism industry experts expressed concern and added that Taiwan will still struggle and compete with other destinations to lure visitors in the region because of its self-monitoring rules.

Robert Kao, an expert on tourism management and operations at Tainan University of Technology, added that the entire world except China and Taiwan have opened up, and that Taiwan is already lagging behind as compared to other tourist destinations.

He also termed the seven days of self-monitoring with no quarantine as meaningless, and added that tourists would opt for countries like Japan or South Korea where there are no such restrictions.