The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday announced that from today, all inbound travelers would be subject to a saliva-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 test upon arrival in Taiwan, ending a policy that required arrivals from some nations to take a nasal swab PCR test and wait for the result at the port of entry.

The center also asked people arriving at airports, for example, not to eat or drink from when their plane lands until they undergo the test.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that from today, the policy of testing negative with a nasal swab PCR test before leaving the port for arriving international travelers from certain nations would be scrapped.

Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times

Previously, air travelers from South Korea, India and nations in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia were required to take a nasal swab test and wait for a negative result at the port before proceeding with entry procedures.

Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission Director Victor Wang (王必勝), deputy head of the center’s medical response division, said that from today, all travelers would undergo a saliva-based test upon arrival.

Wang, who was appointed as the center’s on-site commander at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in early January when clusters of infections were detected among airport workers, said that the policy of testing negative at the airport was implemented from January to stop the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 from entering local communities.

In the past 141 days since the policy was implemented, more than 149,000 passengers on more than 2,500 flights have been tested upon arrival, with about 6,200 of them testing positive for COVID-19 — a positivity rate of 4.2 percent, he said.

More than 95 percent of imported cases in the past four months were detected through the tests, and for a while the majority were detected through the policy of testing and waiting for the result at the airport, Wang said.

As the positivity rates of travelers subject to nasal swab PCR tests have declined to about the same as other travelers subject to the saliva-based test, the policy can come to an end, he said.

Chen expressed the center’s thanks to all of the workers who participated in implementing the policy, including healthcare professionals, laboratory workers, airport workers, and customs and border control workers, allowing the nation to remain safe from the virus for a long time.

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