Some 400 people completed quarantine on Friday, two weeks after being sent to centralized facilities due to the Novotel hotel outbreak. This group includes hotel staff, flight crew, and other guests who were at the hotel when the outbreak was found. The Taoyuan City government has kept the hotel closed since it was vacated on April 29. But now that Novotel''s staff is out of quarantine and ready to work, the city plans to turn the hotel into a quarantine center for airline workers.

In the early morning hours of Friday, three large tour buses pulled up at this quarantine station on Yangmingshan. Several private vehicles also arrived, with people picking up loved ones who were quarantined 14 days earlier due to the Novotel outbreak.

At a quarantine facility in Linkou, too, buses were streaming in nonstop. People coming out of quarantine could be seen with their luggage in tow.

On April 29, the CECC called for the Novotel to be vacated. The hotel’s 207 staff members, 109 China Airlines pilots, 76 foreign pilots and 20 regular guests – a total of 412 people – were sent to six centralized quarantine facilities.

Donning protective clothing, quarantine staff administered PCR and blood tests to the group, and vaccinated those who requested it. Those who tested negative for COVID were allowed to board buses, private cars or quarantine taxis and leave the facility.

On Friday, 33 chemical warfare troops entered the Novotel hotel in protective gear to sanitize the site from top to bottom. They left no stone unturned, spraying every surface in the hotel while a specialized vehicle from the EPA sprayed the outside perimeter.

Cheng Wen-tsan
Taoyuan mayor
After the sanitizing is done, we still need to investigate how people moved about the hotel, and how things like the quarantine were handled. In the future, China Airlines and foreign airlines will need to use the hotel again, so I think there needs to be a high standard in place. Only after we investigate can it be put back into use.

The Taoyuan City government is prepared for the challenge ahead. Now that the airlines crew have completed quarantine and have not had contact with the community for 14 days, they are ready to go back to work. However, in the future, they will need to quarantine for 14 days, every time they return to Taiwan. It remains to be determined how the central and local governments will arrange this, and when the Novotel hotel will be reopened for use by crew.