Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday ordered the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to establish guidelines for penalizing people who break a quarantine at home or at a center-designated building.
Su made the remarks during a weekly Cabinet meeting.
People subject to quarantine who willfully leave should be subject to a hefty fine and local governments, which are in charge of handing them out, should strictly enforce the rules, the premier said.
A payment deadline and a penalty for when people fail to pay on time needs to be set, Su said.
The authorities should enforce the penalty, meaning that offenders' property would be sequestered, he added.
The center would be instructed to quickly publish guidelines on fining people who contravene the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) so that scenarios are established for when to impose fines, Su said, adding that the directive is designed to safeguard public health.
Su quoted Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) as saying that the COVID-19 situation worldwide remains dire, and that the nation must be prepared for the possibility of community spread.
Even though schools have opened, there have not been any cluster infections, which is commendable, Su said, calling on schools at all levels to continue their disease-prevention efforts in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and local governments.
Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) told local government representatives at the meeting to remind the public to wash their hands thoroughly and frequently, saying that hand washing is one of the most effective ways to avoid becoming infected.
In related news, a man in Hsinchu County was yesterday fined NT$1 million (US$33,378) for breaking a home quarantine.
Lin Tung-ching (林東京), who returned to Taiwan on a Xiamen Air flight on Tuesday last week, should have quarantined himself at home until Tuesday next week, but he changed residence multiple times after the quarantine was ordered, leaving disease-prevention workers unable to locate him.
With the help of Lin’s family members, the Liujia Police Precinct persuaded Lin to turn himself in, and found that he had visited Taipei’s Xinyi (信義) and Wanhua (萬華) districts and New Taipei City’s Baishawan beach during the quarantine period, precinct Chief Yeh Jih-jen (葉日仁) said.
The county government slapped Lin with the highest possible fine under the special act on COVID-19 — over a “malicious” infraction.
The act, passed and ratified on Tuesday last week, contains penalties — which can be retroactively applied to Jan. 15 — for people who breach quarantines, among other infractions.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that the ministry would recommend to the CECC that quarantined people be tracked through video calls.
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