Taipei is likely to set up a COVID-19 vaccination passport system that would result in people being seated in different areas in restaurants depending on vaccination status, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
Ko made the remark at a news conference to promote the Fun Guandu festival at Guandu Temple in the city’s Beitou District (北投).
During the event’s opening speech, Ko said he expects that more than 70 percent of Taipei residents would be fully vaccinated by the end of January and that Taiwan’s COVID-19 situation would ease fully before the Lunar New Year next year.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
“Theoretically, people would not need to wear a mask after having received two doses,” he said, adding that with the expected progress in COVID-19 drug development, Taiwan could ease border restrictions in January.
“People who have not been vaccinated should go get their shots as soon as possible, because we will introduce a vaccination passport soon,” Ko said.
The passport would be integrated with the TaipeiPASS app, which would flash a “green light” for fully vaccinated people, “yellow” for those who had their first shot and “red” for unvaccinated people, he said.
Fully vaccinated people would be able to choose seats in restaurants freely, while unvaccinated people would be seated in separate areas with table dividers, Ko said.
More than 60 percent of Taipei residents have received at least one vaccine dose, he said.
As many people who are registered elsewhere live in the capital, it is possible that the actual first-dose coverage is about 70 percent, with 30 percent of people in Taipei being fully vaccinated, Ko said.
“As vaccine production has accelerated and Taipei can administer about 40,000 doses per day, I hope that the full-vaccination rate reaches about 70 percent by the end of the year,” he said.
Asked about Ko’s statement on mask wearing, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that the mask mandates would not be fully eased before the Lunar New Year.
Vaccinations would continue, said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is a CECC spokesman, said that as long as there are COVID-19 outbreaks abroad, wearing a mask would be the “last line of defense” to prevent imported cases from spreading.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS