The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have proposed amendments to toughen penalties for those who breach the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法).
The DPP version, sponsored by DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), aims to amend Articles 62 and 69 of the act.
The proposed amendments state that people who are aware they are infected with a category one communicable disease (smallpox or a SARS-like disease), a category five disease (SARS, influenza type A, Ebola) or a category two multidrug-resistant disease (tuberculosis) and infect others because they did not comply with instructions from competent authorities would face up to three years in prison, as well as a fine of NT$300,000 to NT$3 million (US$9,900 to US$99,003).
Screen grab from Wang Ting-yu’s Facebook account
People who fail to tell Centers for Disease Control (CDC) agents that they have any of these diseases upon entry into the country would face up to a year in prison, as well as a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1.5 million.
The KMT proposal, sponsored by KMT Legislator Sufin Siluko, says that people known or suspected to have these diseases who fail to comply with instructions from competent authorities would be handed a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$500,000, regardless of whether they have infected others.
Should noncompliance cause someone’s death, the patient or suspected patient should be sentenced to seven years to life in prison, the KMT draft says.
If noncompliance causes severe injury to others, the perpetrator should be imprisoned for three to 10 years and fined a maximum of NT$1 million, it says.
People who attempt to spread rumors or unverified information regarding category five diseases should be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison and fined a maximum of NT$3 million, it says.
People suspected of being infected with a category five disease who fail to comply with competent authorities regarding examinations, inspections and medication would face fines of NT$200,000 to NT$1 million, while those seeking to avoid, or obstruct, disease prevention efforts should be fined NT$30,000 to NT$500,000, the KMT draft says.
Failure to mitigate conditions or comply with regulations within the given time could see the person fined per repeat offense, the KMT said.
Both proposals have passed a first reading and are being reviewed by the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS