A worker at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport disinfects cargo on an incoming flight yesterday.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
2022/07/30 03:00
EFFICIENCY GOAL: The policy change, which went into effect overnight, is expected to shave 40 to 50 minutes off the wait time for incoming travelers, the CECC said
By Yang Yuan-ting and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA
The luggage of people arriving in Taiwan no longer needs to be disinfected under COVID-19 protocols, which would reduce wait times by nearly an hour, the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） said yesterday.
The new policy, which went into effect overnight, was made after consulting with experts on how to improve airport efficiency, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, the CECC’s spokesman.
The change is expected to shave 40 to 50 minutes off the wait time for incoming travelers, Chuang said.
However, airplane passenger cabins would still need to be disinfected, given the percentage of people who test positive for new strains of SARS-CoV-2 on arrival in Taiwan, he said.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 vaccination rate among children aged six months to five years has reached 8.9 percent since jabs for the age group became available nine days ago, the CECC said.
The CECC earlier this week said it would consider eliminating quarantine measures for incoming travelers if the first-dose vaccination rate among young children reaches 50 percent.
The CECC yesterday reported 23,289 new COVID-19 cases, all but 306 of which were domestic infections, and 57 deaths from the disease.
Thirty of the deceased were unvaccinated, while 54 had chronic illnesses or other severe diseases, the CECC said.
Sixty-one previously reported cases had become severe, while 79 others had developed moderate symptoms, it said.
Among the severe cases are eight children who have been diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children （MIS-C）, the CECC said.
Five of them have already been discharged from hospital, while three are still hospitalized, it said.
To date, 136 children under the age of 13 have developed severe illnesses from COVID-19, of whom the majority were younger than six, CECC data showed.
Of the 136 children who developed severe COVID-19, 70 were diagnosed with MIS-C, the data showed.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES