TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — While Taiwan was considering the loosening of COVID-19 border restrictions for business travelers in June, there were no plans at the moment to allow tourists into the country, reports said Friday (June 3).

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) was reportedly considering requests from the business world to make visits by foreign business travelers easier, including a reduction of the predominant “7+7” formula of seven days of quarantine followed by seven days of self-health management to a “3+4” system.

However, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) poured cold water on prospects for welcoming back the 11 million tourists a year who visited Taiwan before the pandemic, CNA reported.

Spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said the government was considering three main directions for loosening border restrictions, but opening up to tourists was not one of them.

A shortening of the mandatory quarantine period and the introduction of separate categories of travelers to benefit from the shorter quarantine were two of the formulas under consideration, according to Chuang. The third one was the abolition of special quarantine taxis at the airport, instead allowing arriving travelers to be picked up by friends or relatives, or to drive a vehicle themselves.

Due to the current COVID situation, this month’s planned border reopening measures were unlikely to include tourists, officials said.