Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) yesterday said that all beauty salons in the city must close from Friday to Thursday next week or face a fine, in the latest restriction imposed by the city to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The call came after Taoyuan recorded 29 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the city to 475.
The city has the third-highest number of confirmed cases in Taiwan, following New Taipei City and Taipei.
Photo copied by Chen En-hui, Taipei Times
Taoyuan is the first municipality to order the closure of beauty salons, which Cheng described as establishments that provide hairdressing, and nail and eyelash treatments.
There is a three-day grace period from yesterday through tomorrow before the policy takes effect on Friday.
Violators would face a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000, Cheng said.
He also said that the number of COVID-19 screening sites in the city would be expanded from 14 to 18 — 11 at hospitals and seven in communities.
All of the stations provide polymerase chain reaction tests and can process a combined 5,200 samples per day, he said.
The city is planning to set up at least two large vaccination sites and some smaller sites once the central government has received more vaccines and is ready to launch a large-scale rollout, he added.
The Taoyuan City Government has also urged city residents to follow a voluntary ID number-based rotation system to reduce crowding at traditional markets.
The markets have been identified as hotspots for virus transmission because of their cramped conditions and poor ventilation.
Under the rotation system, people whose ID numbers end with an even digit are advised to limit visits to traditional markets to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while those with an odd number in the last digit of their ID cards should visit on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)