A New Taipei City man has been fined NT$400,000 (US$13,221) and ordered into government quarantine after breaking home quarantine for a second time on Saturday.
The 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳) returned to Taiwan on Sunday last week and was ordered to home quarantine until Sunday.
He was seen leaving his home on a scooter with his girlfriend on Saturday, three days after he was fined NT$200,000 for going outside to exercise, police said.
Photo: Hsu Sheng-lun, Taipei Times
Chen has now been placed in a quarantine center arranged by the district office and health center of the district where he lives, police said.
Police warned the public that breaking home quarantine could help spread COVID-19, and offenders would face heavy fines.
In related news, the Hsinchu Branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency said it has established a contact window to expedite the handling and enforcement of home quarantine violation cases in Hsinchu city and county and Miaoli County.
People who fail to pay fines for contravening quarantine regulations within the required timeframe would be reported to the branch, which said it could force payment through compulsory seizure of properties, issuing restrictions on leaving the nation or going out to sea, or filing arrest and custody orders with the courts if necessary.
The branch yesterday said it had received its first case, a Thai woman who has failed to pay a NT$300,000 fine for breaking home quarantine on Sunday last week, and has notified border control authorities that she is not allowed to leave the country.
It would take further action after the woman finishes her quarantine period, the bureau said.
Six fines have been issued in Miaoli County for breaking home quarantines and four, totaling NT$40,000, have been paid so far, it said.
The Thai woman’s fine is one of the two unpaid NT$300,000 ones, it added.
There have been 11 fines imposed in Hsinchu City, and five — with a total value of NT$350,000 — have been paid, while the unpaid ones total NT$750,000, it said.
Hsinchu County has only one fine, a NT$1 million penalty imposed upon Lin Tung-ching (林東京) for “malicious” infractions 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) by changing residences multiple times after his return from China on Feb. 25 and visiting several locations in Taipei and New Taipei City during his home quarantine period.
He has not paid the fine, the bureau said.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS