COVID-19 Status in Taiwan
- High Vaccination Coverage (2 doses) 85%+
- Valid R.O.C. (Taiwan) Resident, ARC holders can visit
- Reopening schedule is unknown but soon (late 2022/early 2023)
Update date: 2022/7/28 12:00
Overview of COVID-19 in Taiwan
- Get PCR tested before arrival is cancelled
- Forced quarantine (3+4 days) after arrival is still necessary
- Only Taiwan resident, ARC holders can visit
- Vaccination coverage is high (2 doses 85%+ 3 doses 71%)
- Under nationwide Level 2 Epidemic Alert now
Latest Update
- 4.5 million people have been infected out of 23 million (nearly 20%)
- Daily activities are almost as usual as pre-COVID-19
- Wearing masks is still necessary in every public area
- This outbreak is getting better now
The Island is Almost Free from the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020
Taiwan closed the border against COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 against China just after Chinese New Year/Feb 2020. In early March 2020, the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) barred non resident/foreign nationals from entering Taiwan, in order to stop the spreading of the virus. It was successful as Taiwanese citizens cooperate with the government’s epidemic prevention measures , therefore CDC relaxed the epidemic prevention restrictions and regulations in June 2020. Since then, we can travel freely inside the Taiwan island and between all the offshore islands.
The Outbreak in mid 2021 was under controlled in half year.
However, there were two outbreak in 2021. In Jan 2021, one hospital had a domestic infection cluster and in April 2021, an airport hotel had another domestic infection cluster and eventually cause the outbreak to the whole Taiwan island. At this moment, we are not able to stop the virus entering Taiwan as 2020. On 19th May 2021, the CDC raise the alert the epidemic level throughout the country to level three in the four-tier system until Feb 2022.
The Outbreak in 2022 spring again
As long as the COVID-19 virus evolved as SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Taiwan could not stop the virus in the border anymore. We have some cases in early April in 2022 and it has spread into community soon. However, as we have enough vaccination from late 2021, the Taiwan CDC didn’t raise the alert the epidemic level again as 2020. The death rate is low and citizens are getting used to this disease.
The Impact on International Tourism
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on inbound birding tour is serious. The local tourism is nearly fully opened as long as you are fully vaccinated (3 doses). Now every important birding sites in mountain areas are open and crowed with people now. We have no restriction in Taiwan now.
When Will Taiwan Open the Border?
We believe the border will be opened soon but the timing is unknown. There were some rumors of the opening timing but none of them are confirmed. As we have almost 1/5 citizens have been infected, we can expect the border will be reopened soon. It should be in late 2022 or early 2023.