TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Saturday (Dec. 31) visited Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to inspect preparations for saliva PCR tests to be conducted on all travelers arriving from China.

Amid a massive spike in COVID-19 infections in the communist country, and the Jan. 20-30 Lunar New Year holiday, the government said that beginning Sunday (Jan. 1), all travelers arriving from China would be subject to the tests. The same measure will not only apply at airports, but also at ports on the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, where ferries will arrive from the Chinese province of Fujian from Jan. 7 to Feb. 6.

At the airport, Su said the Lunar New Year holiday was the most important period of the year for family reunions, so traveling should be made comfortable for people returning home to Taiwan, but COVID prevention should not be relaxed, especially since the situation in China was not transparent.

The PCR tests would not affect passengers arriving from Hong Kong and Macau, the Liberty Times reported. Currently, only the Chinese airports of Beijing, Shanghai Pudong, Xiamen, and Chengdu operate flights to and from Taiwan. The airport at Taoyuan was expecting 9,142 passengers to arrive on 54 flights between Jan. 8 and Jan. 14, the peak travel period.

Premier Su said though the number of travelers was limited, the problem could be the emergence of a new COVID variant. In that case, Taiwan would immediately inform the world of its findings, he said.