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.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do