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Lawrence Chung

Authorities in a southeastern Chinese province have postponed plans to shorten quarantine for visitors from Taiwan after a surge in new coronavirus cases on the island linked to the travel industry.
A coronavirus command centre in Fujian announced on Saturday that it would delay introduction of the trial scheme, which was scheduled to start on Monday and would have reduced the quarantine period for “qualified Taiwanese visitors” from 14 days to two.
The command centre said Taiwan had reported more than 10 local infections in the last 14 days, and so no longer met the requirements for the trial.
The trial would have been open to Taiwanese people on business exchanges and residents of the Taiwan-controlled offshore islets of Quemoy and Matsu who could prove they did not have the virus.
Taiwan health minister is not god, premier says after Covid-19 cluster
The surge in new cases in Taiwan has raised fears of a community infection wave that could undermine the island’s success in containing the pandemic.
At least 31 people – 12 pilots for Taiwan’s China Airlines (CAL), nine of their relatives, a CAL flight attendant, six people who worked at Novotel hotel at Taoyuan International Airport and three of their family members – have tested positive for Covid-19 since the island’s Central Epidemic Command Centre reported the first infection involving a CAL pilot on April 20.
According to the centre, while the infection sources of the 13 CAL flight staff have yet to be determined, the 18 others are confirmed cases of domestic infections.
All of these people had visited various places in Taiwan, including Taipei, New Taipei City and the Alishan scenic area in Chiayi long before their conditions were diagnosed, prompting authorities to try to trace thousands of people who might have been in contact with them, according to the centre.


Health experts have identified these Covid-19 cases as the first phase of local transmission, which might continue to the second stage if other people unrelated to the airlines and hotel cluster test positive for the deadly virus.
“Once the virus spreads to [other sectors] and the local transmission enters the second and third phase, it would be difficult to contain the pandemic,” said Huang Li-min, honorary chairman of the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan.
Huang, who is also dean of National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital, said while it was hard to tell whether the flight crew transmitted the virus to the hotel employees, the local health authorities must act swiftly.
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Taiwanese Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Saturday the authorities were working hard to bring the pandemic back under control – a state that could be declared if there were no more new local cases by May 19.
Chen did not rule out the possibility that the pilots brought the virus back from flights overseas and transmitted it to the hotel employees. Nor did he rule out the CAL flight members having contracted the disease from hotel employees coming in contact with foreign crews.
While one part of the hotel had been designated by the aviation authorities as the quarantine venue for foreign national crews, CAL’s Taiwanese flight members going into quarantine could also check in the hotel. But the practice has come under fire as hotel management failed to strictly follow the rule of distancing between the flight members and regular hotel guests.

The hotel reportedly offered discounts and other promotions to attract local guests after business was hit by the pandemic. These guests were put in the same building, but with CAL flight crews on the top two floors.
Chen admitted there was a big discrepancy in observing the quarantine rules by the hotel.
He said both the hotel and the airline would be fined heavily.
Earlier, Chen said Taoyuan’s health department should technically be responsible for overseeing the hotel’s quarantine standards.
But there has been growing public criticism that President Tsai Ing-wen’s government had relaxed its vigilance against the pandemic.
Former health minister Yang Chih-liang said the government’s vaccination policy was also to blame for the surge in local transmission.
“Right from the start, our vaccination policy is wrong because flight members are the high-risk group who should be among the first to get the shots,” Yang said.
Taiwan health minister is not god, premier says after Covid-19 cluster
He said if the government was worried it did not have adequate shots for locals, it could always talk to the United States to buy several thousand doses of the Moderna vaccine for flight crews to reduce their chances of contracting the virus.
Taiwan has struggled to get supplies of the much-needed vaccines, and since late March has given some 200,000 jabs of the AstraZeneca vaccine to priority groups at 57 designated hospitals. Medical personnel, not flight crews, have the first priority.
In total, Taiwan has signed contracts to buy 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 4.76 million doses of unspecified brands through the Covax allocation programme.
The public was also to blame for dropping their guard against the pandemic, Yang said.
“There is an increasing number of people not wearing masks and following hand sanitation and social distancing because they believe Taiwan has been doing well in controlling the pandemic and they no longer need to worry about it,” Yang said.
Taiwan has remained one of the few areas in the world allowing large concerts and sporting events, among other gatherings.
As of Saturday, Taiwan had recorded 1,183 infections, including 12 deaths.


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At least 31 people, including 12 pilots for Taiwan’s China Airlines, test positive for Covid-19
Fujian says it will postpone start of trial scheme that was to begin on Monday



Coronavirus: Chinese province delays quarantine cuts after Taiwan case surge

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} At least 31 people, including 12 pilots for Taiwan’s China Airlines, test positive for Covid-19 Fujian says it will postpone start of trial scheme that was to begin on Monday

At least 31 people, including 12 pilots for Taiwan’s China Airlines, test positive for Covid-19

Fujian says it will postpone start of trial scheme that was to begin on Monday