Categories: AsiaHealthNews

Taiwan to Impose Health Declaration Forms on All Visitors

Amidst ongoing disruption to international travel routes, and increasingly harsh immigration measures being taken across the region, Taiwan has announced its latest steps to help prevent the Wuhan-virus from spreading further in the country.

Effective February 11th, all travellers from areas outside China, Hong Kong and Macao need to fill in a ‘Health Declaration’ form detailing any recent travel itinerary in the three aforementioned areas, and any relevant contact history over the past 14 days.

Those failing to accurately do so face a fine of up to NT$150,000 according to the Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Visitors from China, Hong Kong or Macao meanwhile are still required to fill in the Novel Coronavirus Health Declaration and Home Quarantine Notice, and to follow the relevant regulations pertaining to home quarantine 14 days after entering the county,

The latest measures come at the same time as South Korea recommending its nationals avoid “all nonessential travel to Taiwan” according to the CDC, and despite Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) declaring “there have been no community-acquired cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Taiwan so far.

To date, the 18 coronavirus cases that have been confirmed in Taiwan have proven to be imported or due to close contact with infected individuals.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.