Taiwan to reopen to business travellers in March

The island was one of the few places still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy but will now start to open up again
Most foreign visitors had been banned since a surge in cases last May

Coronavirus Taiwan

Agence France-Presse

Published: 6:49pm, 24 Feb 2022

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Taiwan announced plans on Thursday to reopen to business travellers and shorten quarantine for all arrivals, slightly loosening restrictions in one of the few places alongside mainland China still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy.

The island was hailed for keeping Covid-19 at bay for the first year of the pandemic, but an outbreak detected last April forced Taipei to implement economically painful restrictions.

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That included banning all foreign visitors, with the exception of a few categories such as residency holders and diplomats, since a surge in local infections last May.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) said Thursday restrictions would start to be eased for foreigners coming in for business purposes, including inspection, investment, employment or fulfilling contractual obligations.

“We will open to foreign businesspeople starting March 7 in line with some relaxations in the overall pandemic prevention measures,” said Chen Tsung-yen, deputy head of the CECC.

Mainland, Hong Kong and Macau residents can only apply for entry to fulfil business contracts or due to transferrals within multinational companies.

Business visitors have to apply in-person with Taiwan’s de facto embassies, while Chinese nationals must apply online via local host companies to the National Immigration Agency.

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Also from March 7, the 14-day mandatory quarantine for all arrivals will be cut to 10 days, in addition to a week of monitoring at home.

A mask mandate and some other restrictions will be eased from March 1, authorities said.

“We had some domestic cluster infections before Lunar New Year but the number of local cases continued to fall in recent weeks,” said Chou Jih-haw, head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division. The domestic situation is stable and under control.”

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Most of the island’s detected cases are imported. On Thursday, Taiwan recorded seven local infections and 73 imported cases with zero deaths.

It is not yet clear when Taiwan might transition to living with the coronavirus, like most major trading nations.

Foreigners in Taiwan have also complained that they are still having to leave the island to renew visas.

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