Local governments can decide whether shuttered businesses can resume operations as long as they apply measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Taiwan has not reported a local infection for 26 days, showing that the nation’s disease situation has stabilized, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told a daily news briefing in Taipei.
As of yesterday, the nation had recorded 440 cases, including six deaths, 349 of them imported, 55 local infections and 36 from the Panshih (磐石) navy supply vessel, among whom 355 have been released from quarantine after treatment, center data showed.
Photo: CNA
Despite the easing situation, people should continue to practice disease prevention measures, Chen said, adding that continued vigilance would bring a relaxing of rules.
Chen announced four requirements for local governments to evaluate whether suspended businesses should resume operations.
They should maintain proper social distancing — 1.5m indoors and 1m outdoors — among customers; promote personal hygiene measures, such as requiring visitors to wear masks, checking their temperature and providing disinfectant; control visitor flow, keep a register of people entering the premises and regularly sanitize the environment; and ensure that fire prevention and security systems are in order, he said.
Businesses that fulfill these conditions can be freed from the center’s guidance that groups of 100 indoors or 500 outdoors should be avoided, he said.
The center on April 9 announced that hostess clubs and dance clubs should suspend operations after a hostess in northern Taiwan tested positive for the coronavirus.
Asked why the center said local authorities had the final say in easing restrictions, Chen said that the center offers disease prevention guidelines, but local governments enforce the rules.
Municipalities can make a decision after assessing their own disease prevention capacity and that of businesses, he said.
Chen also promised that the government would improve the system for individual applications for NT$10,000 grants to ensure that people in need can get money.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Thursday apologized for failing to clarify the rules to apply for the grants for uninsured workers.
Su said he would shoulder all responsibility for the long lines and confusion over the application process.
Earlier yesterday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Su would be retained to lead the Cabinet on May 20, the start of her second term.
Separately, the center said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has partnered with Facebook on a service aimed at providing timely and reliable information on the pandemic.
CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that people can use the Facebook messaging app and a chatbot developed by the social media company to ask questions about the pandemic at any time.
People can get up-to-date domestic and overseas information about the pandemic, learn how to prevent COVID-19 and find out where masks can be purchased, the CECC said in a statement.
The service is only available in Chinese, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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