Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) on Thursday apologized for saying that the nation was “serving time in prison” with Taipei and New Taipei City amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert.
Miao, of the Social Democratic Party, made the comments on Monday last week on a TV political talk show in response to the level 3 alert being extended to June 28.
All Taiwanese are “serving time in prison” with Taipei and New Taipei City, she said.
“Looking at Taipei and New Taipei City, the infection rate has leveled to a flat trend over the past three weeks, but it is still not moving downward. Therefore, our entire nation is in a level 3 alert. It is unfortunate, because if you can imagine Taipei and New Taipei City as a smouldering furnace, some sparks could fly outward to Taoyuan, Miaoli County and other regions, spreading the fire,” she said.
Her remarks generated a backlash, with some saying she was tarnishing her own city, while others said she had political motives in making the comments.
“No one wants to get infected,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Wednesday.
“We are still in a stressful situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak. There is no need to talk about it in this way,” he added.
Miao apologized on Facebook.
“It was not my intention to blame Taipei residents,” she wrote.
She said that her comments about “serving time in prison” with the cities were due to her “negative emotions” in wishing that the Taipei City Government could have done a better job.
“Most people of our nation have followed up and complied with the disease prevention measures, but the city government did not manage the situation well, and did not make the best use of its resources to combat the outbreak effectively. The results are not fair to the public,” she said.
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