Taiwan will stop accepting arrivals from overseas from Wednesday, May 19, 2021, as the number of Covid-19 cases in the territory continue to climb, local media there reported.

It will only accept citizens and legal residents for the next month from May 19 till June 18, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said on May 17.

Transit travellers will be barred from entering Taiwan, the CECC added.

Exceptions to the rule will only be made in cases of emergency or for humanitarian reasons.

But such situations will require the persons to apply for special entry permission in advance.

Taiwan reported 333 new domestic cases of Covid-19 on May 16.

This number broke Taiwan's daily record of local cases for the fourth consecutive day, with around 780 domestic cases confirmed over the past week.

Taiwan reported the latest 13th and 14th fatalities on May 18, alongside 245 confirmed new cases, of which 240 are domestically transmitted.

The latest two fatalities are an 86-year-old male and a female in her 60s.

The male deceased is the first person to die of the disease since domestically transmitted cases of Covid-19 began spiking in late April 2021.

The man had multiple chronic diseases and was recently tested positive as part of a New Taipei hospital cluster.

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