After more than two and a half years of border controls, Taiwan abolished all COVID-19 entrance restrictions on Thursday, allowing tourists unrestricted access to the self-ruled island.
Throughout the pandemic, Hong Kong and Taiwan, along with mainland China, required most visitors to complete a mandatory quarantine period, even as most countries reopened their borders to tourists.
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No longer are entry-level PCR tests or quarantines for visitors required. Instead, they will need to keep a close eye on their health for a week after they get there and get a negative quick antigen test result the day they get there. A negative test from either that day or the day prior is required if someone wants to leave within the seven-day monitoring period.
Furthermore, there are no longer restrictions on which countries may enter Taiwan.
Numerous visitors from Thailand were among the first to arrive at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, which serves the nation’s capital Taipei, on a Tiger Air plane that touched down shortly after midnight.
At a welcome ceremony in the Taoyuan airport’s arrival hall, the travelers from Thailand were met by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s director, Chang Shi-chung, who handed out gifts.
Taiwan’s tourism bureau estimated that a total of 244 tourists from some 20 tour groups will arrive Thursday.