The Taichung City Government is asking all hostess bars and dance halls to suspend operations as part of an administrative order from the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), the city said yesterday.
The CECC on Wednesday issued the order after a hostess in Taipei tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Individuals or establishments that breach the order face fines of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000, in accordance with the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), the municipality said.
Photo courtesy of the Taichung City Government
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said that similar businesses — KTVs, saunas, bars, nightclubs, “special service” cafes and arcades — are to continue to follow prevention guidelines, such as wearing masks, taking temperatures and observing social distancing.
The government is also enforcing new regulations for these establishments to record the names and telephone numbers of clients upon entry.
Lu said that the new regulations are being put in place not just because of the hostess case in Taipei, but also because of similar cases in the past.
The high client turnover at these businesses makes it difficult to track individual customers, adding to the difficulty of disease prevention and increasing the risk of local cluster infections, Lu said.
The city recognizes the concerns from the management of these businesses, but it asks them for their understanding and compliance in these trying times, Lu said.
Businesses must take special measures to maintain public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lu added.
Meanwhile, hostess bars on Wednesday closed early for establishment-wide disinfection after the Taipei Department of Health visited regarding the employee.
Hostesses typically come from third-party companies and do not have standing contracts with the hostess bars themselves, a source said, adding that the hostess who tested positive had been dispatched to other bars.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS