Quarantine Operations for Offshore Wind Power in Taichung Port during COVID 19 Pandemic, 2020

Quarantine Operations for Offshore Wind Power in Taichung Port during COVID 19 Pandemic, 2020

Offshore wind power is an important policy for Taiwan’s current energy development. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 and the rapid spread of the epidemic to countries around the world also affected offshore wind power development plans. To maintain the strict border quarantine measures and the development of offshore wind power plans simultaneously, Taiwan has developed a series of offshore wind power related disease prevention management plans. Taichung Port is an important port for the offshore wind power industry. It also followed border quarantine measures to prepare and implement quarantine work. The preparation works included personnel disembarkation control mechanism, health assessment, evaluation of crew’s self-paid COVID-19 test capacity and ship quarantine operations reinforcement. In the implementation of quarantine work, a total of 490 people from foreign offshore wind power vessels entered Taiwan, of which 223 underwent home quarantine, and the other 267 were self-paid COVID-19 tested after entry. The results of 267 self-paid COVID-19 tests were all negative and then they all departed by plane within three days. In addition, two crew members were examined on board by the quarantine officers due to suspected COVID-19 symptoms, and the results of COVID-19 test of them were negative. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is still severe, it is necessary to continue assessing the international epidemic risks and entry management capacity, adjusting border quarantine measures accordingly, and cross-departmental cooperation in port to ensure the prevention of epidemic and development of offshore wind power industry.