An Executive Yuan ban on elementary and secondary school teachers and students traveling abroad is constitutional and within the legal parameters of Article 7 of the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday.
Lo made the remark in response to a reporter’s question on whether the ban is unconstitutional because it restricts people’s freedom of movement.
The ban was based on Article 7 of the act, which has its roots in Article 31 of the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法) that gives the heads of disaster response command centers the power to “take any necessary response measures,” Lo said.
The legal basis of special laws is Article 23 of the Constitution, which affords the government the right to introduce special laws in times of emergency, he said.
During the SARS outbreak, the government forcibly quarantined people suspected of having the disease, which prompted a request for the Council of Grand Justices to interpret the constitutionality of the move, he added.
The council declared the moved constitutional in its Interpretation No. 690, citing Article 37 of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), which was also derived from Article 31 of the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act.
In the explanation for Article 7 of the special act, lawmakers stated that due to the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, should be given a reasonable degree of flexibility to respond to potentially rapid developments of the pandemic, Lo said.
Chen told a Cabinet meeting yesterday that the powers given to him by Article 7 were a last resort and that he would not invoke the article when existing laws suffice, Lo said.
However, even with the article, it is unlikely that people would travel abroad, as the coronavirus has spread quickly — affecting 149 nations and regions as of yesterday — and the ban would likely have little direct effect on people, he said.
ADEQUATE COVERAGE: New Taipei City, which has more than 9,500 people under home quarantine, said it would add another 450 rooms at its disease prevention hotels The Taipei City Government has added a fourth designated disease prevention hotel, allowing people under 14-day home quarantine to isolate themselves from NT$5,000 per day, it said yesterday. The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism launched the first disease prevention hotel on Feb. 21 to accommodate travelers without a place to stay during mandatory home isolation or quarantine, and for people who want to separate themselves from their family members or roommates during quarantine. The department said that as of yesterday, more than 120 travelers have stayed at one of the city’s three disease prevention hotels, and their 178 rooms are nearly
MISINFORMATION: The 100,000 masks given to ally Paraguay were bought in other Latin American nations, not made in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan has not yet reached a point where it can export masks to diplomatic allies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, dismissing as misinformation online reports that it gave away masks to curry favor with a diplomatic ally. “Taiwan provides med-ical aid to diplomatic allies based upon specific circumstances,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said, adding that the supplements donated by Taiwan were all purchased locally in allied countries, in accordance with their needs. “The time is not yet ripe” for Taiwan to export medical supplies, such as surgical masks, to diplomatic allies, until
An improvised protective device for use when intubating patients designed by Taiwanese doctor Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇) is being adopted in the Philippines to help doctors there stay safe amid the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. “We made this acrylic aerosol box for my sister Dra. Frances Legaspi for Antipolo Doctors Hospital. Credits to Dr Lai Hsien-yung for the concept and design,” Anton Legaspi, whose family owns a business that makes customized designs, said on Facebook on Monday. The hospital is in Antipolo, about 25km east of Manila. Legaspi’s post was accompanied by several photographs of the box and a short demonstration video
All state-run columbariums must strictly regulate how many visitors they host during Tomb Sweeping Day on Saturday next week to curb the spread of COVID-19, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday. Hou asked people to use online worshipping services instead. Electronic “tomb sweeping” systems, which display a virtual altar for people to make offerings and say prayers, can reduce crowd sizes at columbariums, Hou said during a site visit to Shulin Life Memorial Hall (樹林生命紀念館), a columbarium in the city’s Shulin Disrict (樹林). Measures for admission control would be strictly implemented in state-run columbariums, Hou said, pointing to the Shulin
RSS