The Ministry of Health and Welfare should integrate various systems that have been used to monitor foot traffic at tourist attractions to ensure that locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 do not increase after a nationwide COVID-19 alert was downgraded to level 2 on Tuesday, tourism experts said yesterday.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Andy Chiu (邱臣遠) said at a news conference that the ministry spent NT$15 million (US$535,619) last year leasing a system from Chunghwa Telecom to monitor foot traffic at tourist destinations, adding that travelers could access the system via the “Freeway 1968” app, which was previously only used to monitor freeway traffic.
While such a function should have been available from April last year to April this year, it was removed from the app in June last year and not used for 10 months, he said.
Government officials in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, New Taipei City and Yunlin County have developed their own apps to monitor the numbers at tourist attractions, but both the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications have been unwilling to consolidate the different apps into one platform.
Travel Quality Assurance Association chairman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said that as tourist attractions are regulated by different government agencies, the Central Epidemic Command Center should lead interagency efforts to consolidate the nation’s monitoring systems.
“We will see a rise in locally transmitted cases again if we fail to effectively regulate the number of people entering tourist attractions,” Lee said.
Chen Tai-an (陳泰安), an associate professor in the department of sustainable tourism at TransWorld University, said the government should use technology to monitor foot traffic and prevent further outbreaks.
Staff at Kaohsiung’s Hsingda Harbor and Chiayi County’s Budai Fish Mart still calculate foot traffic using people counters, which is an outdated system, Chen said.
“Since the government has already built such a system, it should work to improve it and make it better,” he said.
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei
RSS