Taiwan to impose ban on entry of foreigners for 1 month amid new COVID-19 cases

Amid the continuously increasing new cases of COVID-19, Taiwan is planning to prohibit the entry of foreigners for a month.

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Taipei: Taiwan plans to prohibit foreigners without local residency from entering the island for a month from Wednesday (May 19), as its daily local COVID-19 infections reached a new peak of 333 new cases on Monday (May 17).

"Because of the rising COVID-19 epidemic situation both domestically and internationally, to safeguard the domestic epidemiological situation and the health of our citizens, our nation will introduce the following border control restrictions from May 19: entry of foreigners who do not hold valid resident permits will be suspended, with exceptions for emergency and humanitarian cases; the passengers` flight transit through Taiwan will also be suspended," the Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CDC) said in a statement.

The restrictions would last until June 18, the statement added.

During a press conference on Monday (May 17), Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the island identified 333 new local COVID-19 cases and two imported cases in the past 24 hours.

As of Monday, Taiwan has reported 2017 COVID-19 cases, including 883 local cases, with 12 fatalities, according to data from the Taiwan CDC.

After being hailed as one of the most successful regions in containing local COVID-19 outbreaks, Taiwan saw a spike of new infections in recent days after daily new cases topped 100 for the first time on Saturday (May 15).