TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As new cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) have started to ebb in Hong Kong and Vietnam, Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday (Sept. 9) added Hong Kong to the list of medium-risk countries/regions and upgraded Vietnam to its list of low-risk countries/regions, meaning that business people from Hong Kong and Vietnam need not undergo the full 14-day quarantine when visiting Taiwan.

During his weekly press conference on Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 9), Minister of Health and Welfare and CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) announced that because of the downward trend of local coronavirus cases in Hong Kong and Vietnam, the center has added the former British colony to its list of medium-risk countries, while upgrading Vietnam to its list of low-risk countries. Since June 22, business travelers who visit Taiwan from low-risk countries/regions are only required to undergo five days of quarantine, while those from medium-risk countries/regions only need a seven-day quarantine.

Due to a sudden spike of new cases in Hong Kong in July, the CECC on July 22 announced that it was dropping the special administrative region from its list of medium-risk countries. In the wake of new local outbreaks of the virus in Vietnam in August, the CECC on Aug. 12 announced that it had changed the Southeast Asian nation's classification from low to medium-risk.

The rest of the countries/regions on the low-risk and medium-risk lists have remained the same since it dropped South Korea from its list of medium-risk countries on Aug. 26.

Low-risk countries/regions:

New Zealand, Macau, Palau, Fiji, Brunei, Thailand, Mongolia, Bhutan, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nauru, East Timor, Mauritius, and Vietnam.

Medium-risk countries/regions:

Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, and Hong Kong.