Starting today, people can download a Digital COVID-19 Certificate, with the government now requiring people at night clubs, karaoke bars and other businesses in “eight major special establishment categories” to be fully vaccinated and present a vaccination certificate.
The eight categories include dance venues, massage parlors, hostess bars and saunas.
Customers and service personnel at the venues have a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, as they can neither avoid contact with people nor strictly observe distancing guidelines, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
Photo courtesy of Central Epidemic Command Center
As such, both groups are required to be fully vaccinated, meaning that they must have had at least a second dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine more than 14 days earlier, the CECC said.
When accessing these facilities, people should present a valid vaccination certificate, and businesses should deny entry to those who do not produce one, it said.
Service personnel who are not fully vaccinated must test negative each week, it said.
Tseng Pi-yun (曾碧雲), a senior specialist at the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Commerce, told the CECC’s daily media briefing that management at such facilities would accept a paper vaccination certificate, also known as the “Yellow Card,” or a Digital COVID-19 Certificate.
People can also show their vaccination record on the National Health Insurance Express app, Tseng said.
Prior to the announcement, the CECC had enforced a similar policy for visitors, caregivers, patients and healthcare providers at hospitals and nursing homes, although they can provide a negative COVID-19 test instead.
Asked if such policy would one day apply to restaurants, movie theaters and other venues, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the private sector and local governments are welcome to enforce their own policies or require the certificate as they see fit.
With New Taipei City soon to bar entry to visitors at elementary schools, kindergartens and childcare facilities without a COVID-19 certificate to protect students under the age of 12, who are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, Chen said that “the CECC would not object to the city government’s policy.”
Restaurateurs can enforce such a policy, provided that they do so in ways that do not constitute collective action, he said.
Last year, the CECC launched a platform where people planning to travel overseas can apply for a digital vaccination certificate.
A new version of the platform — at dvc.mohw.gov.tw/maintenance-dcc — is to be launched at 8am today, the center said, adding that people can get a “green” pass with if they are fully vaccinated, have tested negative or have recovered from COVID-19.
The old platform asked people to register with their passport number, but the new platform requires household registration, a national ID and national health insurance documents, it said.
The system complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and can be used to verify vaccination status and polymerase chain reaction test results issued by 60 countries, the CECC said.
A platform-issued certificate — which would be converted into a QR code — can be printed or be stored in apps that require name registration, it said.
“Apps that comply with the EU’s principles of handling personal data — minimum disclosure, right to data portability and right to forget — can link to the platform with the CECC’s permission,” Chen said after Taipei officials asked whether the city’s TaipeiPass could be used with the platform.
Upon presentation at a business, the certificates would return one of three results: green — from being fully vaccinated, testing negative or having recovered from an infection — meaning “pass”; red, meaning “not passed”; or yellow, meaning “to be determined,” the CECC said.
NOT BUYING IT: One of the goals of Beijing’s Cross-Strait Media People Summit was to draw mainstream media executives to discuss the ‘one country, two systems’ formula Taiwanese news media insist on press freedom and professionalism, and would never become a tool of China’s “united front” campaign, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday, responding to media queries about the lack of Taiwanese media executives at the Cross-Strait Media People Summit in Beijing. Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) was reportedly furious that no Taiwanese media representatives attended a scheduled meeting with him on Thursday last week. “Beijing should take Taiwan’s determination to pursue freedom and democracy seriously. We also hope that it will not use vicious means to interfere with Taiwan’s development into a
IMMIGRATION REFORM: The legislative amendments aim to protect the rights of families to reunify, and to attract skilled professionals to stay and work in Taiwan Foreigners who are highly skilled professionals, top-prize winners in professional disciplines, investment immigration applicants or have made special contributions to Taiwan can soon apply for permanent residency on behalf of their spouses and minor or disabled children after the legislature approved amendments to the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法). The amendments, which were proposed by the Ministry of the Interior and approved by the Executive Yuan on Jan. 12, aim to attract foreign talent to Taiwan and encourage them to stay. They would take effect once they are signed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The amendments involved changing 63 articles, making it the biggest
FIRST STEP: Business groups in Taiwan welcomed the deal, which does not include tariff reductions at this stage, as they called for the elimination of double taxation Taiwan and the US yesterday signed an initial agreement under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade. The agreement was signed yesterday morning by Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Managing Director Ingrid Larson in Washington, the Office of Trade Negotiations in Taipei said. The ceremony was witnessed by Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) and Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi. Taiwan and the US started talks under the initiative in August last year, after Taipei was left out of the Washington-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. “The deal that will be signed tonight is not only very historic,
Beijing yesterday blamed US “provocation” for an incident last week in which a Chinese plane crossed in front of a US surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea. The incident came at a time of frayed ties between Washington and Beijing over issues including Taiwan and the shooting down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US this year. “The United States’ long-term and frequent sending of ships and planes to conduct close surveillance on China seriously harms China’s national sovereignty and security,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) said when asked about the latest incident. “This
RSS