TAIPEI: Taiwan will allow international travellers to transit through the island as it eased Covid-19 restrictions starting yesterday.
It will also lift entry bans on some students and non-tourism visitors.
Its Central Epidemic Command Centre said travellers, including from Macau and Hong Kong, would be allowed to transit through the Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei, but cannot enter the island.
"These travellers will be allowed to stay at the airport for no more than eight hours and must take connecting flights from the same airlines to their destinations," said the centre's deputy head, Chen Tsung-yen.
South China Morning Post reported Chen as saying that transit passengers would be required to stay within a designated part of the airport and avoid contact with other travellers.
They could access duty-free shopping and food in the waiting area.
He said all travellers would undergo temperature checks and anyone found to be over 37.5° Celsius would not be allowed to board another flight.
Anyone with a fever would be seen by a doctor at the airport to assess whether they needed to go into quarantine in Taiwan.
But travellers from mainland China were still barred from transiting through Taiwan, Chen said.
Taiwan suspended all international flight transfers at its airports on March 24, five days after it banned foreign travellers from visiting the island as Covid-19 rapidly spread worldwide.
Authorities took preventive measures when the outbreak first emerged in mainland China in late December, and it has recorded just 446 cases and seven deaths.
Given its relatively successful containment of the outbreak, Chen said foreign travellers would also be allowed to visit Taiwan for non-tourism purposes starting from Monday.
They would be required to spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival, but business travellers from 15 countries and cities could apply for a shorter quarantine.
Taiwan has listed 11 places as low-risk: Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Palau, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Fiji, Mongolia and Bhutan.
It has also classified South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore as low-to-moderate risk countries.
The move is seen as being in line with Taipei's recent announcement that it would set up a special office to help Hong Kongers seeking to flee to the island because they feared prosecution for their involvement in anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
Taiwan will also allow 2,238 students from the 11 low-risk countries and cities — including 834 from Hong Kong and 617 from Macau — to return.
Education Minister Pan Wen-chung said the students were those due to graduate this summer but had been barred from entering due to the pandemic.