Starting today, eating and drinking in Taipei movie theaters is to be banned as the city government seeks to bolster its disease prevention measures.
Movie theaters may continue to sell food and beverages, but customers cannot consume them on the premises, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said.
The ban aims to ensure that people keep their masks on at all times when watching a movie, as they would be in close proximity to others inside a movie theater, he added.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The new measure does not mean the COVID-19 alert level was being raised and it only aims to adjust precautions at movie theaters, Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) said.
“Customers can still buy snacks and beverages, and eat them outside the theater hall while waiting for the movie to start,” he said.
There have been recent cases with unknown infection sources, so the city has been looking at measures to improve public safety, he added.
Offenders would not be fined for now, Tsai said, calling on the public and theaters to cooperate.
Tsai said the city would later this week reopen its online vaccine appointment Web site to finish off a stock of 80,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
People can make appointments on the Web site on Friday and Saturday, he said, adding that vaccinations would begin on Monday.
Walk-in vaccination sites, such as the one in Taipei Railway Station, stopped work on Thursday for the Lunar New Year holiday, and would resume service on Monday next week, offering 600 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and the AstraZeneca vaccine each every day.
Meanwhile, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 17 domestic and 38 imported COVID-19 cases.
As 10 of the domestic cases tested positive during quarantine after being listed as close contacts of other confirmed cases, the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan remains under control, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman.
Sixteen of the new local cases were linked to previously reported clusters in Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, the greater Taipei area and Yilan County, while the source of one case, who was confirmed in Kaohsiung, but had recently been to New Taipei City, is being investigated, the CECC said.
Eleven of the new cases were classified as breakthrough infections.
One had received one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while three, including one under the age of 10, have not been vaccinated.
The vaccination status of two cases is still being investigated, the CECC said.
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
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
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS