The Taipei City Government yesterday conducted a simulation for a level 4 lockdown, which would close all nonessential businesses and bar entrance into the city.
The death toll from COVID-19 in Taiwan has surpassed that of SARS in a scene unfathomable at this time last year, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said.
There is evidence that the situation has stabilized over the past three days, as ambulances are no longer being turned away from hospitals due to a lack of beds, he said.
Photo: CNA
However, if the situation continues, “quantitative changes would create qualitative ones,” Ko said, asking what would happen if the city must lock down for months or if cases surge once more.
Therefore, the city must “plan for the worst to be best prepared,” he added.
In the simulation, participants led by Ko practiced mobilizing the city government to manage all levels of response with the goal of identifying problematic areas.
The first step would be commanding the Taipei Epidemic Command Center to remain open around the clock, while each administrative district would be instructed to set up disaster response centers, the city government said.
The city would also coordinate closely with the governments of Keelung, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, it said.
All schools and offices would be closed, and no one would be allowed to go outside except to buy food or seek medical treatment, or to perform other necessary or official duties, it added.
In addition, roadblocks would be erected to restrict movement between regions, the city said.
Seventy-one control points would be set up on access roads and highway ramps to restrict the flow of private vehicles into the city, while trains would not stop at stations within Taipei, it said.
All mass transit services would only operate within city limits, meaning that MRT service between Taipei and New Taipei City would be suspended, the city government said.
The YouBike service would also be suspended, it added.
Police would be dispatched for crowd control at markets, which would be instructed to restrict sales of certain items if supply becomes limited, it said.
About 21,000 essential businesses would be allowed to operate, including restaurants, bakeries, fruit and vegetable vendors, gas stations and supermarkets, it said.
Traditional markets would operate with limited hours, it added.
As for medical supplies, the city said it would seek assistance from the Ministry of Health and Welfare to establish backup hospitals and evaluate the potential of converting regional hospitals into specialized COVID-19 facilities.
It would also aim to provide 1,400 quarantine hotel rooms, it said.
If fatalities surpass the city’s daily cremation capacity of 224 bodies, temporary morgues could be established to store up to 200 bodies, it added.
Finally, the Taipei City Government said it would request assistance from the 6th Army Command 33rd Chemical Corps to sanitize the city, while 1,270 troops from the military’s disaster relief force could be deployed initially.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods