Taipei
Nowhere is watching the zero-Covid horror show unfolding in China more closely than Taiwan, where it is encouraging the island to ease restrictions, even as cases of the infectious Omicron variant spike. Taiwan’s premier Su Tseng-chang has said the extreme measures being imposed on the other side of the Taiwan Strait are ‘cruel’ and his country would not follow suit. From next week, mandatory quarantine for arrivals in Taiwan will be cut to seven days from the current ten, as the island moves gradually towards a policy of trying to live with the virus.
Taiwan was in the vanguard of the zero-Covid movement, but now recognises that stamping out the virus completely is no longer realistic
The Covid shackles are now coming off across Asia, with most countries relaxing or lifting restrictions completely. This week New Zealand reopened its borders to vaccinated and Covid-negative visitors from more than 60 countries, after two years of closure.
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