Tue, Jun 08, 2021 page3

• COVID-19: CECC revises guidance for retail stores

  BOOSTING VIRUS MEASURES: Rules for companies with migrant workers have also been revised, and the Ministry of Labor is inspecting migrant workers’ dormitories

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced principles for controlling COVID-19 at supermarkets, convenience stores and other retail outlets, while issuing revised guidance for companies with migrant workers.

  The center said that the nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert would be extended until June 28, meaning that existing disease prevention measures would continue to be enforced, while some enhanced measures would also be implemented.

  “The ministry instructs supermarkets, convenience stores, department stores and other shops to thoroughly implement crowd control,” Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺) said. “We also urge people to buy more per visit and go shopping less often.”

  

  A woman walks past the window of a store in Taipei with a sign that reads “Keep going Taiwan” in the window. The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday announced that the level 3 COVID-19 alert would be extended to June 28.

  Photo: CNA

  Three principles of COVID-19 prevention and control are to be implemented at retail venues, he added.

  The first principle is “crowd control,” including clear business hours and a maximum number of people allowed in the store, going by the rule of one person per ping (3.305m2), Chen said.

  An employee should be tasked with enforcing a “one in, one out” policy when there are many customers to keep the number below the maximum, and customers should be instructed to practice social distancing inside and outside the store, he said.

  

  A customer waits at a COVID-19 checkpoint at the entrance to a City’super supermarket in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo courtesy of City’super

  The second principle is “entry and exit control,” Chen said.

  Stores are encouraged to designate separate entry and exit points, provide alcohol-based sanitizer for customers’ hands, and position employees at entrances to ensure that people register their contact information, have their temperature taken and wear a mask.

  The third principle is increased disinfection of store spaces, especially customer restrooms, escalators, elevators, seats, nursery rooms and surfaces more frequently touched by customers, Chen said.

  Deputy Minister of Labor Wang An-pang (王安邦) said that while prevention guidelines have already been issued to companies with migrant workers, a few points have been revised.

  If an employee is diagnosed with COVID-19, the person’s close work contacts must immediately be identified and placed under home isolation in single rooms with private bathrooms, he said.

  If the infected person works at a company with more than one factory site, migrant workers who are not infected and are at the other sites must not be moved to the infected person’s production line or dormitory, Wang said.

  Company personnel should be assigned to monitor the infected workers’ health daily, and arrange for those with COVID-19 symptoms to be placed in isolation and tested, he added.

  The Ministry of Labor expects to finish inspecting migrant workers’ dormitories at the 1,168 companies that have 50 or more foreign workers by Thursday, Wang said.

  It is also allocating funds so that it can offer subsidies to companies that reduce the number of migrant workers per dormitory room by moving some of them to other buildings, hotels or quarantine hotels, he said.

  A care center has been established to provide services for migrant workers of King Yuan Electronics, Wang said.

  The CECC on Sunday ordered that migrant workers at King Yuan Electronics suspend work and be placed in home isolation, after 195 infections, mostly migrant workers at its factories in Miaoli County, were confirmed.

  Translators have been recruited by the center to assist in communicating with the migrant workers, Wang said, adding that they would receive regular care service calls in their native language and receive disease prevention supplies.

  The ministry also has Line accounts (LINE@移點通) for sharing government policies and other information with migrant workers in four languages: Indonesian (@1955mw_id), Vietnamese (@1955mw_vn), Thai (@1955mw_th) and English (@1955mw_ph), he said, adding that migrant workers are encouraged to follow the accounts to better understand the latest COVID-19 control policies.
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