Epidemic Can Slow Down When Cases Drop to Below 10,000 確診降至每日1萬以下 方可確定疫情緩和

People are concerned about whether Taiwan will be double-slammed with both COVID-19 and the flu. The Minister of Health and Welfare said when the number of confirmed cases drops to below 10,000 per day, then the epidemic may be deemed to be slowing down.

Domestic epidemic remains on a high plateau. Also, as winter, the prevailing time for respiratory diseases, approaches, will the nation be double-slammed with both the epidemic and the flu? This is what the Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan perceives.

Hsueh Jui-yuan, Minister of Health and Welfare: “Reasonable attention is necessary because there are indeed all kinds of respiratory infections and viruses, which occur frequently in winter. So people must remain reasonably alert. ”

Reasonable alertness should be maintained because starting Thursday, Oct. 13, Taiwan will open its national borders and welcome incoming travelers. All are concerned about when the domestic epidemic will slow down and become endemic. 

Hsueh Jui-yuan, Minister of Health and Welfare: “If the confirmed cases drop to 10,000 or below, then we may be certain that the epidemic is going down and be sure that it will hit its lowest point.”

Other than waiting for the domestic epidemic to slow down, many people are engaged in revenge outbound travel. However, looking at the number of outbound travelers skyrocketing, tourism scholar Huang Jheng-tsong worries about the huge discrepancy between inbound and outbound travelers.

Huang Jheng-tsong, Professor, Department of Tourism, Providence University: “We must try our best to attract tourists to come to Taiwan and accord them the most flexibility in travel so we can strive for this tourism market.”

To prevent discrepancies in inbound and outbound tourism, scholars note that the government should further relax immigration controls for inbound travelers as well as open up to Chinese, Hong Kong, and Macau tourists to really help resume tourism.
 

近期國內疫情處於高原期，眼看接下來又要邁入冬天的呼吸道疾病好發期，會不會碰上疫情和流感雙面夾擊？衛福部長薛瑞元這麼看。

衛福部長薛瑞元表示：「適度的一個緊張是需要的啦，因為的確有各種不同的呼吸道感染的這一些病毒等等，這一些疾病會在冬天的時候發生，所以還是要有一定的緊張度。」

會需要抱持適度緊張，是因為國內從明日開始，即將重啟國門，迎接入境旅客，本土疫情何時往下走？又何時走向疫情流感化？各界都在關注。

衛福部長薛瑞元指出：「在1萬左右或者1萬以下的話，那大概可以確定就是說，它（疫情）這一個往下走的趨勢，是已經確定的，那也就是說，可能會達到一個所謂的谷底。」

除了等待國內疫情走向谷底，不少國人更出現報復性出國潮，但是反觀出境人數直線飆升，靜宜大學觀光系教授黃正聰擔憂，在入境旅客人數，可能出現觀光逆差。

靜宜大學觀光系教授黃正聰指出：「要盡量讓觀光客他們能夠來這個入境，而且能給他們最大的這個彈性，來爭取這個（觀光）市場。」

想避免觀光逆差情況，學者表示，政府針對入境旅客的防疫管制得再適度鬆綁，也要開放中港澳旅客來台，才能有助於觀光產業真正復甦。