People can get COVID-19 rapid screening results via the National Health Insurance Express App, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it stressed the importance of not taking public transportation and staying away from public places within three days after being tested.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, made the remarks at the CECC’s daily briefing.
The CECC and the National Health Insurance Administration have updated the app to allow people to access their COVID-19 rapid screening results, which should help make the process less stressful, he said, adding that those with a positive result will also be informed by phone as before.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, said people should refrain from using public transportation, wear a mask indoors and avoid public places within three days after being tested.
The instructions are typically given to people by the hospital that performs the screening, Chuang said in response to reports that a Keelung resident, who later tested positive for COVID-19, had taken a train to Hualien two days after being screened, but before receiving the result.
Chuang said that the Keelung resident was tested on Tuesday, meaning they should not have used public transportation until yesterday.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Taiwan Railways Administration is to contact people who were in the two cars that the Keelung resident had entered and ask them to practice self-health management, he said.
Meanwhile, under the national level 3 COVID-19 alert issued on Wednesday, people are required to wear a mask at all times outside their homes or face a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000.
However, questions have been raised about how the rules should be enforced, particularly over activities such as driving and eating.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the CECC, said that masks are required when two or more people are in a vehicle.
The CECC and local governments agreed that a driver alone in an enclosed vehicle does not need to wear a mask, as they pose little risk of transmission, but masks are required as soon as a second person is aboard, Chen Tsung-yen said.
Workers on construction sites may eat or drink unmasked in a socially distanced area onsite, which employers must provide, he said.
While people are allowed to lower their mask to drink, the CECC has banned smoking in public areas during the level 3 alert.
Repeated breaches of masking rules — including using a drink as an excuse to not be masked — is punishable by a fine, the CECC said.
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi, Yang Mien-chieh and CNA
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS