Chartered flights bring stranded Taiwan residents back to island

A total of 361 people from Taiwan who have been stuck in Hubei province due to the novel coronavirus outbreak have taken arranged flights to the island from Wuhan, center of the outbreak, the provincial Taiwan affairs office of Hubei said on Thursday.

The passengers have all tested negative for the virus and undergone at least three rounds of body temperature tests before boarding the planes, the office said.

Two flights operated by two airlines from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan conducted the return trip, it said.

The flight operated by China Airlines based in Taiwan took off from the Wuhan airport at 9:43 pm Tuesday carrying 169 people, and the other flight operated by China Eastern Airlines based in the mainland took off at 2:08 am Wednesday with 192 people onboard.

At present, 608 people from Taiwan in Hubei have returned to the island, according to the office.

Because of the lockdown on Hubei to curb the spread of the virus, many Taiwan residents who live in the province or who are there on a business trip or traveling, cannot return to the island because all flights have been canceled.

To help them return home, the mainland arranged to put them on chartered flights from Wuhan to Taiwan. The first batch of 247 Taiwan residents took a chartered flight to Taiwan from Wuhan on Feb 3.

The mainland planned to arrange more trips for other Taiwan residents in Hubei to return home, but it was declined by the island authorities in the past month.

Authorities of the two sides finally reached an agreement on Saturday that the two sides would conduct the return trip of the second batch together.

Among people in the second batch, over 40 percent urgently needed to return to the island for medical treatment, about 30 percent were children and 23 percent needed to return to work in the island, it said.

The office called on the two sides to arrange another joint transportation as soon as possible and help all Taiwan compatriots stranded in Hubei return home.