TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday (Aug. 22) announced that it had raised the quota for arriving passengers to 50,000 per week, with immediate effect.

On June 11, the CECC announced the shortened "3+4" quarantine formula, but imposed a 25,000-person weekly cap on arrivals. The next month, on July 7, the CECC announced that the weekly quota would be raised to 40,000.

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) said the weekly quota would be raised to 50,000 effective immediately. Wang said that the increase was made after considering the increase in arriving passengers and because the risk of further spread of the virus is currently in a controllable range.

Wang stated that as predicted in previous forecasts for the pandemic, cases in neighboring countries have risen slightly, and the domestic outbreak has also increased in northern Taiwan. However, the current growth trend of cases is within the "estimated range."

In view of the fact that the summer vacation is coming to an end and there is an influx of Taiwanese tourists and students returning from abroad, Wang said that the inbound passenger limit is being raised. He pledged that the CECC will continue to work to adjust the capacity of airports and epidemic prevention hotels and adapt border control measures in a timely manner, as long as the outbreak can be kept within a "controllable scope."

In a press release issued that day, the CECC stressed that border control measures are an important key to containing the domestic COVID epidemic. The center called on people returning to Taiwan to abide by the various quarantine and epidemic prevention measures during the "3-day quarantine + 4-day self-health monitoring period" upon entry and after entry in order to maintain the safety of the community.