Huannan Market Autonomous Association president Lin Sheng-tung (林勝東) on Friday urged politicians to concentrate on eradicating the COVID-19 outbreak, after he earlier in the day accused independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) of politicizing an outbreak at the market while ignoring his electorate.
The Central Epidemic Command Center and Taipei City Government on Friday morning held a news conference to announce a joint command post tasked with responding to a cluster outbreak at the city’s Huannan Market (環南市場) in Wanhua District (萬華), which as of yesterday had 110 confirmed cases.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Lim, who represents the district, and Lin were all present, and Chen and Ko announced improved measures after large-scale polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing identified 41 new cases at the market in one day.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
As Ko was explaining the reasoning behind setting up the joint command post and the city’s preference for rapid testing and vaccinations over PCR testing, Lim cut in, accusing him of “speaking nonsense.”
Lim said that he had been speaking with Chen over the past few weeks about setting up a joint command center, but it had been delayed until Friday.
“During this delay has the pandemic become better or worse? The answer is clear,” Lim said.
He also criticized Ko for what Lim called his “contradictory testing policy,” first saying that the market outbreak was too complex for PCR testing, only to later implement comprehensive PCR testing.
Lin then grabbed Ko’s microphone to accuse the legislator of only visiting the market during election time and ignoring his constituents.
Later that evening, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) on Facebook defended Lin’s “frank outburst” while calling for unity.
“We all came together today to come up with a solution,” Huang said. “We did not expect someone would come spouting politicized drivel.”
She also shared a statement from Lin, in which he explained his anger at Lim for only discussing city politics while ignoring the people.
“I was not trying to make a name for myself with my remarks, I just do not want the livelihoods of 1,060 Huannan vendors to be reduced to a grandstanding prop,” he wrote.
“An ocean of bickering will not wash the virus away, but it will submerge the common people,” he added, calling on officials to concentrate on solving the outbreak instead.
Lim also apologized for his “emotional” remarks on Facebook, while reiterating the responsibility of politicians to control the outbreak.
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