The Taipei City Government is cracking down on owners of short-term rental units, including Airbnb listings, who have been offering their units for home quarantine or isolation stays, amid concern that such rentals could be a loophole in disease-prevention efforts.
As of Sept. 22, people under a home isolation or quarantine order can only stay at quarantine hotels, at home or at a place offered by another person free of charge, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) told a news conference yesterday.
Owners of short-term rental units who rent to people under a home isolation or quarantine order would be fined between NT$3,000 and NT$15,000, and the owner’s name and the address of their accommodation would be made public, she said.
Photo: CNA
“People have to be responsible to whom they are offering their houses, so the fines would be aimed at the home owners,” she said.
While there might be cases of renters who are subleasing their units for short-term stays, it would be the owner of the unit whose name would be publicized if a reported breach is confirmed, she added.
After the Central Epidemic Command Center on Aug. 19 announced that people under quarantine can only stay at “quarantine hotels” certified by local governments, the Taipei City Government on Aug. 21 released a list of non-quarantine hotels in the city that had provided accommodation to people in quarantine.
As of Tuesday last week, the city had found 81 housing units that have accommodated people in quarantine more than five times, Huang said.
Some of the cases might involve company dormitories or people who have had several family members return from overseas, so the city would check the homes, but there have also been reports by borough wardens about a home that accommodated more than 10 people under quarantine, she said.
Short-term rental suites or non-quarantine hotels might not be able to perform the proper cleaning and disinfection required for quarantine facilities, in addition to bringing together a mix of residents and those under quarantine, which might increase the risk of cross infections, Huang said.
SOLVED: Domestic orders have already overtaken the total sold to China last year, while the Canadian and US representative offices posted messages of support A joint effort by groups and individuals in Taiwan and abroad to prop up sales of pineapples after China announced a ban on imports of the fruit succeeded in just four days, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday. China on Friday announced that it would suspend imports of Taiwanese pineapples starting on Monday, citing biosafety concerns. Following the announcement, the council urged the public to assist farmers by purchasing pineapples, saying it hoped to sell 20,000 tonnes of the fruit domestically and 30,000 tonnes in exports. “Domestic orders have already surpassed the total sold to China last year,” COA Minister
‘UNFRIENDLY’: COA Minister Chen Chi-chung said that Beijing probably imposed the sanction because the pineapple production season is about to start in Taiwan More than 99 percent of pineapples sold to China passed inspections, the government said yesterday, after China earlier in the day abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from the nation, which Taipei called an “unfriendly” move. From Monday, China is to stop importing pineapples from Taiwan, the Chinese General Administration of Customs said. The regulation is a normal measure for ensuring biosafety, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said in a news release later yesterday. Since last year, Chinese customs officials have repeatedly seized pineapples imported from Taiwan that carried “perilous organisms,” Ma said. Were the organisms to spread in China, they would
Taiwanese netizens and politicians yesterday mocked a Chinese plan to build a transportation network linking Beijing and Taipei, calling it “science fiction” and “daydreaming.” Their comments were in reaction to the Chinese State Council’s release last week of its “Guidelines on the National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan,” which include several proposed transportation links, with one map showing a line running from China’s Jingjinji Metropolitan Region (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) across the Taiwan Strait to Taipei. “This is the Chinese leadership daydreaming again of [fulfilling its] fantasy of extending China’s transportation network to Taiwan. I suggest people regard it as science fiction,” Democratic Progressive
‘ONE PERSON PER UNIT’: People undergoing home isolation cannot stay in a housing unit in which non-isolated people live, unless they have special approval Starting tomorrow, people under home isolation would be required to follow the “one person per housing unit” rule if in private housing, or stay at a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the rules require people under home quarantine to be quarantined with one person per housing unit, or at a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility. “Starting on March 1, individuals under home isolation will also be subject to the ‘one person per housing unit’ rule,” he said. “We