Fewer than 70,000 people are expected to travel by train or freeway bus during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
Many have expressed concern that traveling and family gatherings during the long weekend, which begins tomorrow and ends on Monday, would spread the disease and worsen the outbreak.
As such, the ministry has encouraged people to avoid travel and stay home as much as possible.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan High Speed Rail
As of Wednesday, 38,863 high-speed rail tickets had been sold, accounting for 5.55 percent of total capacity, data from the Department of Railways and Highways showed.
Taiwan Railways Administration reported selling only 26,250 tickets for the long weekend, which translates to a load factor of just 3.56 percent, while freeway bus operators had sold 4,863 tickets, or 3.78 percent of capacity, the department said.
Railway and bus operators have all managed to keep their load factors far below 20 percent, per the instructions of the Central Epidemic Command Center, it added.
To further deter road trips, Freeway Bureau Director-General Chao Hsin-hua (趙興華) yesterday announced that the bureau would implement high-intensity freeway traffic control measures for the first time by extending motor vehicles’ wait time on feeder roads to freeways, and close all shopping areas and food courts at freeway rest areas.
Those who breach the rules on feeder roads would be fined up to NT$6,000.
The goal is to reduce the number of motor vehicles on freeways to about 1 million per day, Chao said.
The increasing number of people staying home has boosted demand for broadband services, as well as delivery services by post offices.
Chunghwa Telecom has attracted more than 20,000 broadband service subscribers since the CECC on May 19 issued the nationwide alert, of which 11,665 subscribed to its 300 megabits per second (Mpbs) service, National Communications Commission (NCC) data showed.
HomePlus Digital, the nation’s largest multiple-system operator, also reported that it has gained 4,127 new broadband subscribers during this period, while Kbro has attracted 2,595 new subscribers, the NCC said.
Chunghwa Post has seen a 25 percent increase in the average number of packages delivered per day ahead of the holiday after four private companies suspended domestic cold chain logistics services.
From May 1 to May 9, post offices nationwide delivered an average of 113,000 packages per day, Chunghwa Post said.
That surged to an average of 141,000 per day from Tuesday last week to Wednesday, it said.
As a universal service, the postal company cannot turn away customers, despite the increase in workload, it said, adding that its delivery charges are significantly lower than those of private logistics firms.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be