All public sports centers, activity centers and museums in New Taipei City are to close for 14 days, starting today, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday.
Hou made the remarks at the planned opening of a public sports center in the city’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), stressing the need to curb the further spread of COVID-19 while apologizing to the staff for the unexpected announcement, which temporarily put them out of work.
Some more renowned venues in the city that are to close for 14 days due to the new measure include the Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology (十 三行博物館), the Gold Museum (黃金博物館), the Hakka Museum (客家文化園區演藝廳) and the Wulai Atayal Museum (烏來泰雅民族博物館), the New Taipei City Government said.
Photo: Chou Hsiang-yun, Taipei Times
Hou reiterated the central government’s orders that Taiwanese returning from countries under a level 3 “warning” travel advisory be tested for the novel coronavirus and placed in home quarantine.
The Central Epidemic Command Center on Wednesday said that people who traveled to 27 European countries, Egypt, Turkey or Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between March 5 and Saturday last week must undergo mandatory 14-day home quarantine upon their return to Taiwan.
As of 8pm on Wednesday, about 1,300 people affected by the policy registered for home quarantine, city government data showed.
The New Taipei City Education Department said that there would be no public entry or space rental at the city’s primary and secondary schools until the end of the semester as part of efforts to increase disease-prevention standards on campuses.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
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