Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) yesterday urged city residents who shop at wet markets to do so on a rotational basis to avoid crowding, in line with the city’s COVID-19 control measures.
People whose national ID number ends with an even digit should visit wet markets on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while people whose ID number ends with an odd digit should visit on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, he said.
The city government would observe for a few days to see whether the suggestion is being followed and would decide if it is necessary to make it mandatory, Lin said during an inspection of Keelung’s Nanhsing Market (南興市場).
Photo: CNA
The market reopened yesterday after remaining closed for almost two weeks following the confirmation of a COVID-19 case there on May 18.
Shoppers are required to register their contact information to enter the market.
Lin said that it is more important to limit the number of people in wet markets than that in hospitals.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Separately, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) made a similar call, saying that if the overcrowding continues, the city government will have to shut the wet markets.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, told a news conference on Saturday that wet markets were being examined as possible sites of COVID-19 transmission, as visits to such markets have been a common factor in a number of recent cases.
In Taipei and New Taipei City, the epicenter of a COVID-19 outbreak, residents have been asked to avoid going to wet markets, but a mandatory rule has not been introduced.
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