Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday announced that businesses in “eight major special establishment categories” — including karaoke bars, dance venues, massage parlors and hostess bars — would be allowed to reopen from today.
The Central Epidemic Command Center on April 9 ordered all hostess bars and dance venues to close.
However, as no new domestic cases of COVID-19 have been reported in more than a month, the center last week said that local governments can decide when such businesses can reopen if they meet social distancing guidelines.
Kaohsiung Department of Health Director-General Lin Li-jen (林立仁) yesterday said that some municipal facilities, such as recreation centers and swimming pools, would also reopen at 8am today.
The reopening of the businesses and facilities depends on them meeting disease prevention guidelines, such as implementing body temperature measurement, providing hand sanitizer and enforcing social distancing or requiring masks if 1.5m of separation cannot be maintained, he said.
Customers would be required to register their contact information, Lin said, adding that environmental disinfection would be enhanced at the facilities, with a city government task force conducting unscheduled inspections.
The Taipei City Government on Monday night said that dance clubs and hostess bars would be allowed to reopen tomorrow at the earliest.
At the Taipei Police Department’s Zhongshan Precinct (中山), Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) told the managers of most of the city’s 68 listed dance clubs and hostess bars that they would be allowed to resume operations if they meet three requirements.
While the center’s guidelines include maintaining social distancing of 1.5m or masks, staggered seating and division boards, the Taipei City Government considers such measures difficult to enforce at dance clubs and hostess bars, so it has instead devised three requirements, she said.
“The first is passing public fire safety inspections, the second is thoroughly implementing a real-name registration system and the third is having special [disease prevention] personnel complete training courses,” Huang said.
A real-name registration app would be provided to businesses so they can scan customers’ identification cards, Huang said, adding that only health officials and police would be able to access the data, which would be deleted after a month.
The city government is to provide training on disease prevention and using the app for business managers, as well as public safety inspections, Huang said, adding that businesses can resume operations after gaining approval — today at the earliest.
Businesses found failing to implement real-name registration in three unscheduled inspections would be ordered to suspend operations for one month, she said.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the city government spent a significant amount of time discussing how to deal with the issue practically.
While reopening dance clubs and hostess bars might increase the risk of infection, the city must find a balance between allowing economic activity to resume and disease prevention, so it is asking businesses to thoroughly implement real-name registration and the city government would be responsible for protecting customers’ personal information, he said.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday said that his city has not considered reopening dance halls and hostess bars, as public health officials have voiced concerns about properly enforcing social distancing in such establishments.
If maintaining social distancing is difficult, then reopening should be assessed by specialists when the disease situation is relatively safer, he said.
Additional reporting by Wang Rong-hsiang and Chen Hsin-yu
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