Coronavirus: Taiwan deploys chemical warfare team at airport to disinfect 361 citizens repatriated from Wuhan

Soldiers douse passengers and their luggage with disinfectant on their arrival at Taoyuan International Airport

Returnees also given medical checks before being taken away for a 14-night stay at one of three isolation centres on the island

Reading Time:3 minutes

The passengers were met off the plane by soldiers from the 33rd Chemical Warfare Group. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:00pm, 11 Mar 2020Updated: 11:25pm, 11 Mar 2020

A group of 361 Taiwanese underwent a military-grade decontamination process overseen by soldiers who specialise in chemical warfare in the early hours of Wednesday after arriving home from mainland China aboard two specially chartered flights.

More than 40 members of the 33rd Chemical Warfare Group armed with all manner of cleaning equipment and materials were on hand to welcome first a China Airlines flight, which touched down at Taoyuan International Airport about 11.45pm on Tuesday, then a China Eastern Airlines flight that landed just over four hours later.

Both had taken off from Wuhan, the central China city at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

As they disembarked, the passengers – dressed in medical gowns and wearing face masks and visors – were doused with disinfectant by the military teams, while doctors and nurses from Taiwan’s Centres for Disease Control took their temperatures and checked for possible infection.

Although none of the passengers showed any symptoms of Covid-19 – the deadly disease caused by the coronavirus – all 361 were promptly taken by bus to one of three isolation centres on the island where they will spend the next 14 days, the defence ministry said.

As well as hosing down the passengers, the military team carried out a deep clean of their luggage, the air bridge and the aircraft themselves.

All 361 passengers will spend the next 14 days in isolation. Photo: EPA-EFE

The evacuation of the Taiwanese citizens from across Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, came after lengthy negotiations between officials from Beijing and Taipei.