The Renai Police Station under the Taoyuan Police Department’s Jhongli District (中壢) Precinct yesterday forwarded the case of a 39-year-old man, surnamed Huang (黃), to the Taoyuan Department of Public Health for breaking quarantine, the first such offense in the city.
Police said that they received notice from the local disease prevention center branch at 3:54pm that a cellphone issued to Huang for quarantine and tracking purposes had issued an alert at 11:19am.
The Central Epidemic Command Center on Wednesday last week began distributing cellphones to local governments to give to people placed under home quarantine to track their whereabouts.
Upon arriving at Huang’s residence, police discovered that he had left without permission and ordered him to return home immediately.
Huang returned to his residence at 4:39pm, which was confirmed via his building’s surveillance footage, the police said.
Everyone issued such a cellphone should keep them close at all times for video conference calls with authorities and to coordinate visits from their borough warden or police in the area, they said.
Authorities tracking quarantined individuals include government units related to social welfare, medical treatment and the police, they added.
Any unsanctioned departure from their residence would cause the cellphone to issue an alert, the police said.
While the devices sometimes give false alarms or delayed reports, the Taoyuan City Government is in talks with the National Communications Commission to resolve the issues, they said.
Huang’s actions could constitute a breach of Articles 58 and 69 of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), which could result in fines from NT$10,000 to NT$150,000, the police said.
His actions might also be breaches of Articles 43 and 67 of the act, which could result in fines of between NT$60,000 and NT$30,000, they added.
Separately yesterday, Criminal Investigation Bureau officials said that they are working on 31 cases of suspected deliberate dissemination of misinformation or rumors concerning a coronavirus outbreak.
Of the incidents, which occurred between Jan. 23 and Tuesday, 12 cases have been transferred to prosecutors and 19 remained under investigation, they said.
In Taichung, prosecutors opened a case against a 33-year-old man surnamed Lee (李) after people reported to health authorities that “false information” was being circulated on messaging app Line, the officials said.
They said that the bureau’s central Taiwan office was tasked with finding the source of the misinformation, which claimed that “in Taichung, there are already 500 people [being treated at hospitals for confirmed coronavirus infections]… There were already more than 1,000 confirmed cases in Taoyuan as of yesterday.”
Lee was tracked down on Tuesday after being identified as the alleged source of the misinformation.
He was yesterday transferred to Taichung prosecutors, who questioned him, with official saying that his actions were a contravention of Article 63 of the act.
The officials said that under questioning, Lee claimed that he wrote the “stronger statements” in goodwill to remind friends to take preventive measures against the “Wuhan virus,” because the situation had become more severe.
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