According to Taiwan media reports on the 27th, Chen Shizhong, commander of the Taiwan Epidemic Command Center, said for the first time yesterday that in order to avoid outside criticism of "political intervention in epidemic prevention", he intends to recognize mainland vaccines.
Chen Shizhong (data photo)
In an exclusive interview with Taiwan's United Daily News on March 26, Chen Shizhong, said in an exclusive interview with Taiwan's United Daily News that since the outbreak of the epidemic, cross-strait exchanges have almost stopped. We are discussing relaxing border controls and vaccination is one of the necessary conditions. In order to avoid outside criticism of "political intervention and epidemic prevention", Chen Shizhong expressed his first intention to recognize mainland vaccines - if Taiwanese businessmen provide vaccination certificates for domestic Sinovac vaccines, they can reduce the number of days at home quarantine, from the current 14 days to 7 days, and the quarantine can be completed before "coming out of customs".
Chen Shizhong revealed that in order to seek economic development, it is imperative for Taiwan to open entry controls. It will use the "medium- and low-risk countries" model to reduce the number of quarantine days after entering Taiwan, and will also recognize mainland vaccines. Although there is no timetable for the new system to go on the road, he has not changed the idea of "seeing the dawn of the tunnel in June".
Chen Shizhong said that loosening border controls will be carried out in two stages. When the vaccine coverage rate of Taiwanese people is insufficient, incoming people hold certificates of COVID-19 vaccination overseas, which can shorten the quarantine time by 7 days compared with the application of "medium and low-risk countries", which also includes mainland vaccines. As for the second phase, all incoming people are exempt from quarantine, but the premise is that Taiwan’s vaccine coverage rate exceeds 60%, and specific resolutions will be made at that time.
Recently, the chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan, Qiu Taisan, proposed the concept of "constructive vagueness", hoping that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will find the greatest common divisor of mutual benefit. The United Daily News said that Chen Shizhong's statement yesterday "expressed the rare kindness to the mainland during the epidemic prevention period." Su Zhenchang, head of the administrative agency of Taiwan, also stated on the 27th that as long as the standards meet, there will be no rejection of mainland vaccines because of politics. Su Zhenchang said that there is only one attitude towards any vaccine, which is to safeguard the health of Taiwanese people. As long as mainland vaccines meet the standards, they will not be excluded because of politics.
(Astro Boy)
