Effective immediately, migrant workers are temporarily banned from changing employers, and employers are temporarily banned from moving migrant workers between factories as long as the level 3 COVID-19 alert remains in place, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
King Yuan Electronics (京元電子) on Thursday began conducting rapid COVID-19 tests on all of its about 7,300 employees after a cluster infection was confirmed among migrant workers at its manufacturing campus in Miaoli County.
King Yuan is a chip testing and packaging service provider based in Hsinchu City. Its migrant workers live in dormitories.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu County Government
As more migrant workers tested positive, the CECC on Friday dispatched Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission Director Wang Pi-sheng (王必勝), who is also deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, and four Centers for Disease Control (CDC) physicians to set up a command center in Miaoli to help coordinate the tests and disease control measures.
As of Friday, 131 confirmed cases — 14 Taiwanese and 117 foreign nationals — had been reported in the King Yuan cluster.
Nine other confirmed cases were reported in another cluster infection among migrant workers at GreaTek Electronics Inc (超豐), also in Miaoli.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, yesterday said 18 testing booths have been set up at King Yuan, with a combined capacity to test 350 to 500 people per hour.
He said 4,599 people had already been tested as of Friday and that the screening program was expected to be completed yesterday.
Enhanced measures would be taken to prevent the virus spreading further among Miaoli’s electronics companies, Chen said.
These include speeding up the tests, conducting risk assessment at workplaces and in dormitories, and instructing employees to isolate at home, or help them find suitable accommodation, he said.
The Miaoli command center includes specialists from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to help coordinate workplace arrangements and has asked Ministry of Labor officials to help manage the migrant workers’ issues, he said.
Deputy Minister of Labor Wang An-pang (王安邦) said that effective immediately, practically all transfers of migrant workers among employers are temporarily banned, including those working under contract and workers whose contracts have expired, as long as the level 3 COVID-19 alert is in effect.
Exceptions include migrant workers who are victims of violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault or human trafficking, he said, adding that such cases would be handled separately.
During the level 3 alert period, employers are also temporarily banned from moving migrant workers among their factories, Wang An-pang said.
His ministry has modified its migrant worker disease prevention guidelines and on Friday sent them to companies employing migrant workers, he said.
The labor ministry would work with local governments to inspect worker dormitories at companies employing more than 100 migrant workers and check if its disease prevention guidelines are being thoroughly implemented at companies with more than 500 migrant workers, he said.
The ministry has since May 17 been inspecting and supervising high-risk companies, including tech firms, care facilities, chain restaurants, wholesale markets, storage facilities and companies employing more than 51 migrant workers, he added.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺) said that more than 300 companies have contacted his ministry asking about how they can conduct COVID-19 rapid tests on their own, and a few have begun rapid screenings based on the CECC’s guidelines released on Sunday last week.
As the law requires that the tests be conducted by healthcare professionals, the companies have partnered with health examination centers, clinics or other healthcare facilities to conduct the tests, Chen Chern-chyi said.
The ministry can assist in partnering companies with healthcare facilities for screening tests, if needed, he added.
Employees who test positive in a rapid test must be reported to the local health department, placed in isolation and undergo a polymerase chain reaction test, Chen Chern-chyi added.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique