Taiwan to cancel home quarantine requirement for arriving travelers

Starting on Oct. 13, travelers arriving in Taiwan will no longer be required to submit themselves to home quarantine and will instead undergo seven days of self-initiated prevention after arrival, the island's disease monitoring agency has announced.

During the self-initiated prevention period, those without any COVID-19 symptoms can go out on condition that they hold a negative result of rapid antigen test obtained within two days and wear masks all the time outside, said the agency in a statement on Thursday.

Inbound travelers have since June been required to undergo three days of home isolation and four days of self-initiated prevention after arrival in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 prevention and control policy at the border will be further eased, with the limit on the number of arrivals being reset at 150,000 per week on a trial basis, according to the agency.

Taiwan reported 43,280 new local infections and 50 deaths from the disease over the past 24 hours, said the agency on Friday. So far, the accumulated number of local COVID-19 cases recorded in the region has exceeded 6.42 million.