The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday released new guidelines for visitor capacity control at easily crowded places and reported two more COVID-19 cases, as well as an additional death.
The guidelines aim to regulate the number of visitors at places such as night markets, hotels, tourist spots, national parks and temples.
All people at traditional and night markets should wear masks, while market managers should stop offering free food samples and restrict access to one entrance, said Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is deputy head of the center.
Photo: CNA
Market managers should propose capacity control plans to ensure that proper social distancing — a distance between people of 1.5m indoors and 1m outdoors — is maintained, Chen said.
Popular vendors should mark such distances for people lining up, while seating for people eating in should follow the distancing guidelines, with boards separating seats in tight spaces, he said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs would choose some markets as demonstration sites for videos to promote the new rules, he added.
Agencies managing tourist spots and national parks should control the number of visitors by monitoring vehicle volume at adjacent parking lots, Chen said.
When half of the spaces at a parking lot next to a tourist spot are occupied, the government would text people in the area or issue warnings on roadside electronic bulletin boards asking them not to visit, he said.
Hotels and other accommodations would be required to offer booking figures to the center before any holiday of more than three consecutive days, Chen said.
Such facilities should regulate the flow of visitors after room occupancy exceeds 60 percent, he said.
Local governments should help temples in their jurisdiction plan routes for visitors to maintain proper social distancing, while the temples should not offer food to worshipers, he added.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the nation’s sixth COVID-19 death was confirmed late on Thursday: a man in his 70s with a history of chronic illness who was on a tour group to Egypt last month and listed as a confirmed case on March 19.
The two new cases are a woman in her 20s and a man in his 60s, Chen Shih-chung said.
The woman, who studies in the US, returned to Taiwan on Monday last week and became the 11th confirmed case among passengers on her flight, he said.
The center has previously said that the flight was operated by China Airlines (中華航空) and listed the seat numbers of those infected.
The man had visited relatives in Indonesia with his wife from Feb. 16 to March 29, Chen Shih-chung said.
While he has not developed any symptoms, he was placed in home quarantine after returning to Taiwan and then home isolation after his wife was listed as a confirmed case on Wednesday, Chen Shih-chung said.
As of yesterday, there were 382 confirmed cases in Taiwan and six deaths, he said, adding that the disease’s mortality rate in the nation is 1.57 percent.
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