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.
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
WELCOME BACK: Foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese can now directly apply for a visa with representative offices overseas, the CECC said Regulations on applications for entry to the nation by foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese have been relaxed effective immediately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported two new local and three imported cases of COVID-19. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said the relaxation meant that such applications would be treated as general cases, instead of special ones that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. “Considering the recent local COVID-19 situation and the needs of foreign spouses and children to visit their family in Taiwan, we are allowing Taiwan’s
PINGTUNG EXERCISE: The pilots tested their ability to land on the 24m-wide provincial highway, preparing for a scenario in which dedicated airstrips are damaged Emergency landing and takeoff drills for military aircraft were held on a provincial highway for the first time early yesterday as part of Taiwan’s Han Kuang military exercises, testing the ability of pilots and aircraft to land on narrow roads were airstrips to be damaged. The drill began at 6:30am on a 2.26km section of Provincial Highway No. 1 linking Pingtung County’s Jiadong (佳冬) and Fangliao (枋寮) townships. An Indigenous Defense Fighter, an F-16V, a Mirage 2000-5 and an E-2K early warning aircraft participated. The planes landed on the highway in that order at 6:30am, 6:32am, 6:34am and 6:36am before taking off at
RSS