The Taipei City Government yesterday announced that it would set up restricted areas in front of the center stage for its New Year’s Eve party, adding that it might take further measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, including only allowing a reduced audience.
The city government might stream the celebration on Thursday next week, to allow people to virtually participate, it said.
The city government would enforce the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) regulations, as announced by the center on Tuesday, and close disease prevention loopholes by setting up further restrictions at the event.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT
It would ask attendees to register with the organizers, the city government said.
The CECC tightened its disease prevention restrictions after a local contact of a pilot from New Zealand, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday last week, also tested positive, making her Taiwan’s first domestic case of the novel coronavirus since April.
The restricted areas would be on Songgao Road, Songshou Road and in front of the Taipei City Council building, the city government said.
Each area would have up to 10 entry points each, depending on the size of the area, Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) told a news conference.
The city government would enforce the wearing of masks, take people’s temperatures and request personal contact data, he added.
Should the central government implement stricter COVID-19 rules, it would hold the event without a live audience, but stream it online, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said, adding that it might also strictly restrict attendance to residents of the area around Taipei 101.
After New Taipei City on Wednesday announced the cancelation of all outdoor activities for the city’s annual Christmasland event, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) yesterday said that their respective city governments are not ruling out either streaming New Year’s Eve events online or canceling the events.
The heads of three major US banks on Wednesday pledged that they would withdraw from the Chinese market if Washington imposed sanctions on Beijing in response to an invasion of Taiwan. JP Morgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told lawmakers at a hearing of the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in Washington that the three banks would follow the guidance of the US government to exit China if necessary. The three bankers made the pledge after US Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer asked the three if they
CHINA CRITIC: Prime ministerial candidate Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner in today’s election, said that she would not renew a Belt and Road Initiative deal with Beijing Italian lawmaker Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner to become the country’s next prime minister, is expected to reverse course on Italy’s support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen ties with Taiwan if a coalition headed by her party wins the country’s general election today. “Without any doubt, if there is a center-right government, it is sure that Taiwan will be an essential concern for Italy,” Meloni told the Central News Agency in an interview. Italians are to vote in a snap election triggered by the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi following a failed attempt to get his coalition partners
HELPING Hand: The government is to provide NT$30,000 in disaster relief to displaced people, while those who have been severely injured would receive NT$250,000 Contingency bus services are transporting rail passengers between Hualien and Taitung counties on the nation’s east coast after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake damaged facilities on Sunday, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday. Until normal train services resume, the bus services would be provided every hour from 6am to 8pm between Hualien and Taitung railway stations, with stops in Jian (吉安), Shoufong (壽豐), Fonglin (鳳林), Guangfu (光復), Ruisuei (瑞穗), Yuli (玉里), Fuli (富里), Chihshang (池上), Guanshan (關山) and Luye (鹿野), the TRA said. While most of the damaged railway tracks would be repaired by today and others by Sunday, Minister of Transportation
HIGH STAKES: An attack on Taiwan could prompt a joint response from the US and Japan, and trigger a global conflict that could bring down the CCP, Liu Tai-ying said The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would not be able to launch an invasion of Taiwan for at least another 10 years, Taiwan Research Institute founder Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) said on Friday. To occupy Taiwan, China needs to transport at least 300,000 to 400,000 troops across the Taiwan Strait during battle, but it would lack the ability to do so for at least another decade, said Liu, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer and a close aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The challenges that China would face during an attempted invasion of Taiwan would be even greater than those
RSS