The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday proposed mandating paid childcare leave to help people take care of their families as the government announced an extension of a nationwide COVID-19 level 3 alert.
The Central Epidemic Command Center on Thursday announced that the level 3 alert would be extended to July 26, but that regulations would be eased for some activities and venues, including restaurants, cinemas, museums and exhibition halls.
Given Taiwan’s low vaccination coverage, the government must be more cautious and issue clearer guidelines on the relaxation of disease prevention measures to prevent community spread, NPP Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) told an online news conference.
Many companies have asked their workers to go back to work as the local outbreak eased, and this trend would only increase with the relaxation of COVID-19 curbs next week, NPP spokesman Chang Wei-hang said.
However, as schools remain closed, parents are faced with the problem of who would take care of their children when they return to work, Chang said.
Keeping schools and childcare centers closed while movie theaters and other entertainment venues reopen is confusing and illogical, he said.
The government must find a way to safely reopen childcare centers and schools, or give workers paid “disease prevention childcare leave” and subsidies until the outbreak is under control, he said.
“Parents should not be forced to choose between taking care of their children while going without pay or exposing them to risks of community spread,” he said.
The NPP also proposed creating a standard system that proves a person has been vaccinated or has tested negative for COVID-19.
Such proof is required for people taking part in indoor events with more than 5,000 attendees in the US or dining in a restaurant in Germany, while France uses a QR-code-based health passport, NPP think tank executive director Lee Chao-li (李兆立) said.
Taiwan should consider issuing similar health certificates or digital proof, which must be standardized to avoid counterfeiting and facilitate verification, he added.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS