Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/14/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan, Wu Hsin-yun and Matthew Mazzetta
Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Taiwan plans to introduce a "strengthened" version of its self-health management guidelines, monitoring travelers for 14 days after their arrival in Taiwan via text messaging, in an effort to reduce the risk of imported cases of the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said in a press briefing Saturday that the CECC plans to introduce automatic text message checks as part of a "strengthened" version of the self-health management guidelines, as well as penalties for those who fail to reply or disclose symptoms of illness.
The CECC has already developed operational procedures for the new guidelines, Chen said, but he did not specify when they would be implemented.
Current CECC regulations stipulate that travelers entering Taiwan from countries under a Level 3 warning must undergo 14 days of home quarantine, while those arriving from all other countries are required to conduct self-health management for 14 days by minimizing time spent in public, wearing a face mask and checking their body temperature twice daily.
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