The Executive Yuan has decided to increase the number of rooms at quarantine facilities from 1,500 to 2,000 as a pre-emptive measure amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a source said yesterday.
The 2,000 single rooms would be spread across 16 locations nationwide, including Taipei’s Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) and Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山), a government official said on condition of anonymity.
The rooms are adapted from employee training facilities owned by different government agencies and state-run enterprises, as well as military quarters, they said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, the number of rooms in quarantine hotels would also be increased from 8,000 to 15,000, after the Tourism Bureau negotiated with hoteliers possessing detached buildings, they said.
The government provides a daily subsidy of NT$2,000 for using a quarantine room, with NT$1,000 going to the person under quarantine and NT$1,000 to the hotelier, they said.
The Cabinet decided to increase quarantine facilities because some people have left their homes, despite being under quarantine, they said.
It is also a pre-emptive measure to ensure that there is enough space for people returning from China on charter flights, as well as migrant workers, they said.
The quarantine rooms are equipped with TVs and have Internet connectivity, they added.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that, starting tomorrow, visitors to post offices would face a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000 if they do not wear a mask after being asked to do so.
While post offices have been requiring people to wear masks and have their temperature taken before entering, some people have refused to comply and argued with office workers, the ministry said.
The fine, based on the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), was approved by the Central Epidemic Command Center on Friday, the ministry said.
China Postal Workers’ Union chairman Wu Wen-feng (吳文豐) said that he supports the new rule, as several people have attempted to forcibly enter post offices without a mask.
Many post offices are narrow or do not have windows, meaning that people cannot maintain the center’s recommended distance of 1.5m indoors when there are four or five people inside, he said.
People should not enter post offices if they are not wearing a mask, he added.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS