In accordance with the announcement from the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), 14 days of home quarantine is mandatory for individuals who return to Taiwan from any of the 27 countries in Europe since March 14, 2020. Also, the first confirmed case from abroad in a high school campus in the northern region was disclosed on March 15. Schools at all levels (abbreviated as schools) must implement the following items thoroughly:

1. Proactively Contact Faculty, Staff, and Students who Return to Taiwan from Abroad:
   1. Effective immediately, schools must proactively contact faculty, staff, and students (overseas students included) who return to Taiwan from abroad in order to confirm whether or not they conduct home quarantine or self-health management.
   2. Schools shall inform all faculty, staff, and students that they must proactively notify the schools about their travel histories if the reasons for their trips were personal reasons. It will facilitate the schools in arranging related measures for health management. If a campus epidemic prevention breach is caused by any undisclosed information, the individual will be held responsible under the regulations governing awards and penalties of school.
   3. Schools shall also remind faculty, staff, and students that if they have had contact with confirmed cases during their trips overseas, they shall honestly report the incidence when returning to Taiwan from abroad, and call the ‘Communicable Disease Reporting and Consultation Hotline 1922’ and their schools.

2. After being contacted by the schools, individuals who are confirmed to require conducting home quarantine must comply with the following measures:

   1. For overseas faculty and students: In addition to the Ministry of Education (MOE) notifying respective schools based on the report from the Ministry of the Interior National Immigration Agency, schools shall also follow the written notice of ‘Management and Epidemic Prevention Measures for Hong Kong and Macau Students’ as announced by the MOE on February 10, 2020, complete the handover of the home quarantine list with the local authorities’ contact people every day, and arrange quarantine dormitories.
   2. For domestic faculty, staff, and students in our nation: They must conduct home quarantine at their residential locations. Schools should take control, and care for the faculty, staff and students, and remind them that any unauthorized exit of home quarantine premises will result in the imposition of a penalty. Schools should also carefully arrange the measures to connect with students’ related teaching, administration, and learning to avoid faculty, staff, and students returning to campus during their home quarantine period.

3. After being contacted by schools, individuals who are confirmed to require conducting self-health management must comply with the following measures:

   1. Schools should remind faculty, staff, and students to follow the CECC’s regulations from ‘Measures for Following Up on Persons at Risk of Infection’ by avoiding entering and exiting public locations. Schools shall also actively make arrangements for them to stay at home or to rest in the dormitories and not go to school.
   2. For students who comply by staying at home or resting in the dormitories, schools do not need to issue permission for leave and they should not be listed as absent from the classes. Schools should concurrently provide the ‘Reassured to Study Program’ and arrange means whereby students can keep up with their studies. On the other hand, for faculty and staff, they should take sick leave, but the leave should not be counted toward their annual sick leave days in the academic year. Related teaching and administration handover matters should be arranged concurrently in order to protect the rights of teachers and students. (The only exception is for individuals who travel overseas on or after March 13, 2020, for a non-work related reason and are listed as targets requiring self-health management by the Health authorities upon their return to Taiwan. The sick leave days are counted toward their annual sick leave days in the academic year, or processed as other types of leave). 

4. Recommended Items from the CECC:

   Since March 16, 2020, for students returning to Taiwan from abroad (those who have overseas travel history within the past 14 days are included), if they are not part of the aforementioned groups of people such as home isolation, quarantine or self-health management, they must still wear a mask for every time when heading out or being in school, while washing hands frequently, and taking a measurement of the body temperature twice a day (morning and evening) until the 14-day period is over.

5. Prepare the epidemic investigation information thoroughly:

   Please follow the disclosed working guidelines for the epidemic prevention and related written notice from the MOE and keep faculty and students’ courses and activities records to benefit future epidemic investigations. In addition, the MOE will simplify and integrate current forms and sheets for surveying categories such as home quarantine, exchange students, and travel histories; these forms and sheets will be issued to all schools, please comply and respond accordingly.

6. For any questions about these guidelines, please contact the following persons:

   1. Department of Higher Education: Ms. Shuzhen Chiu, 02-7736-6304, susan201907@mail.moe.gov.tw
   2. Department of Technological and Vocational Education: Officer, Zhaoyuan Xu, 02-7736-6072, a620220@mail.moe.gov.tw
   3. K-12 Education Administration, Ministry of Education:: Lijing Kao, Military Instructor, 04-3706-1358, e-3314@mail.k12ea.gov.tw