Visits to patients in chronic disease wards are now allowed during designated time slots, in view of the improving COVID-19 situation in Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced Monday.
The move came after Taiwan started allowing hospital visits to patients in psychiatric, pediatric, respiratory, and palliative care wards as well as intensive care units on Aug. 24.
The opening will have certain preconditions, however. No more than two visitors will be allowed at a time, and they must not have any COVID-19 symptoms and cannot have been in contact with anyone recently confirmed as having the disease, the CECC said.
They will also need to present a negative PCR/rapid antigen test report from within three days prior to the visit, unless they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning the second jab has come at least 14 days before the visit.
Also exempted from the PCR/rapid antigen test will be those who contracted COVID-19 but fully recovered and were released from quarantine and first exhibited COVID-19 symptoms within the previous three months.
A patient’s caregiver, meanwhile, is no longer required to get an antigen test every seven days, as had been previously required by hospitals in Taipei and New Taipei, where Taiwan’s major COVID-19 outbreak in mid-May was centered, the CECC said.
The further easing of restrictions on hospital visits was made in response to the improving COVID-19 situation in the country, CECC expert Huang Yhu-chering (???) said.
Also Monday, a requirement that all medical workers in Taiwan be tested for COVID-19 every five to seven days has been lifted, except for those who have not yet received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Vice Health Minister Shih Chung-liang (???) said.
Deputy Superintendent Hung Tzu-jen (???) of the Taipei-based Shin Kong Memorial Wu Ho-Su Hospital said he estimated that roughly 90 percent of all medical workers in Taiwan have been fully vaccinated (received two doses.)
The lifting of the COVID-19 testing requirement will remove the inconvenience medical workers have had to endure, Hung said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel