TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday (April 15) announced that will end on-arrival nasal swab testing for passengers from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as COVID cases in those countries have been tapering off.

At a press briefing that afternoon, CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that as COVID outbreaks in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have slowed down, the positivity rate among passengers from these countries has reached a low level. Therefore, he announced starting on Monday (April 18), on-arrival nasal swab tests for passengers from those countries will be discontinued.

Due to the surge in Omicron cases at the start of the year, Taiwan on Jan. 11 began implementing on-arrival screenings on passengers from long-haul flights and soon expanded the requirement to India, Southeast Asian countries, and South Korea, with passengers required to wait for the results before leaving the airport. Thus far, of the more than 3,500 passengers tested, 4.1% received positive results for COVID.

However, Chen said that arrivals from U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia will instead need to take a less-invasive saliva test when arriving at the airport and still need to enter the standard 10-day quarantine.

He pointed out that passengers arriving from Southeast Asia, India, South Korea, the Middle East, and Europe will still be subject to nasal swab testing upon landing. Amid the increased numbers of passengers flying into Taiwan, Chen reminded travelers to cooperate with and abide by existing quarantine and epidemic prevention measures upon arrival to reduce the risk of viral transmission.