Taiwan has announced that it will close its borders to foreigners in order to halt the flow of imported coronavirus cases arriving on the island.

The ban will come into effect on Thursday. Exceptions will be granted to those with residence permits, diplomats, and anyone arriving to carry out commercial contracts.

All those let in from abroad will then have to stay in quarantine for 14 days.

Combating #Coronavirus & realizing #HealthForAll is deadly serious. From March 19, noncitizens—except those holding ARCs or visiting for approved business, diplomatic or special purposes—won’t be admitted to #Taiwan. In addition, all arrivals must undergo 14-day home quarantine. pic.twitter.com/kc4bQfduKx — 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) March 18, 2020

Taiwan has been praised for its highly-effective response to the coronavirus outbreak, which kept the number of cases down to only 67 prior to Tuesday with just one death among the patients.

However, Tuesday saw 10 new cases reported, the largest single-day jump since the outbreak began. All the cases involved people who had recently traveled abroad.

That number then leaped up to 23 new cases on Wednesday, all but one involving individuals who had traveled overseas.

To go along with the ban, everyone on the island who recently traveled to Europe is being called on to step forward and go into quarantine. They will be rewarded with a daily NT$1,000 ($33) stipend.

Taiwan joins a growing number of places that have decided to temporarily bar most foreigners from entry, including the European Union and Russia.

Hong Kong has announced that it will start quarantining all visitors coming in from outside the city.