A Filipina worker in Kaohsiung was fined NT$10,000 for breaching self-health management protocols after the city government discovered she had gone out to eat with friends before receiving the results of a COVID-19 test.
The woman arrived in Taiwan for work on Nov. 26 and completed her quarantine at a hotel on Dec. 11, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said in a statement on Wednesday.
The next day, she went to a hospital to undergo an out-of-pocket COVID-19 test and then ate hotpot for one-and-a-half hours with nine of her coworkers before her test result was released, the department said.
Her test result came back positive on Dec. 14 and the department found out about the hotpot incident during the contact-tracing process.
She had breached the Central Epidemic Command Center’s rules requiring a person to practice self-health management for seven days after finishing quarantine, the department said.
During that period, people should avoid public places, and if they go outside, they must wear a mask at all times, according to the center’s regulations.
She was fined for going to a crowded place to eat with her coworkers without wearing a mask, as required under the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), the department said.
The coworkers and another of her contacts are in quarantine, it added.
This is the first time a person in Kaohsiung has been fined for breaching self-health management protocol and likely the first in Taiwan, said Ho Hui-ping (何惠彬), head of the department’s Disease Control Office.
The department has been performing random checks on people who are supposed to be practicing self-health management, as there has been an increase in the number of people returning from abroad, Ho said.
Early last month, about 2,000 people were in quarantine in Kaohsiung, but that number has almost doubled since then, she said.
There has also been an increase in the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 during self-health management, including 14 of the 26 cases confirmed in Taiwan from Tuesday last week to Tuesday, she added.
With New Year’s Eve and the Lunar New Year holiday approaching, the department would increase the frequency of these checks, she said.
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