A Taipei resident who had breached his home quarantine order was found on Tuesday night in an Internet cafe and fined NT$1 million (US$32,976), Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday, as the Taipei City Government announced a short-term COVID-19 relief plan.
Huang on Tuesday afternoon publicized the name of the man, Chen Tse (陳冊), who on Saturday last week returned from Beijing and was ordered to undergo 14-day home quarantine.
However, city monitoring officials were unable to contact him by mobile phone or at his home.
Photo: Liu Ching-hou, Taipei Times, from a police photograph
Chen was found by police at an Internet cafe on Nanyang Street, Huang said yesterday, adding that he had not returned to his home, but rather had been at the cybercafe since returning to Taiwan.
After locating Chen, police immediately asked him to don full protective clothing and took him to Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch to be tested for the coronavirus, she said.
The city government would ask if he could be admitted to the central government’s centralized quarantine center if he tests negative, she added.
“The Taipei Department of Health is to impose the heaviest fine of NT$1 million for breaching his home quarantine order for more than 72 hours,” Huang said, urging people not to defy such orders, as breaking quarantine could not only cause harm to themselves, but also other people.
As the number of people placed in home isolation or quarantine has increased rapidly, borough wardens and city officials are overworked, she said.
The central government should allow local governments to recruit volunteers to help provide care for people in home isolation or quarantine, Huang said, adding that it should also consider giving officials and volunteers special subsidies.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant negative economic effects, the city government has drafted a short-term relief plan to help prevent businesses from closing, which would cause a wave of unemployment.
The plan is comprised of six main measures: delaying tax payments; cutting water prices; reducing rent for city government-owned properties; rolling back interest rates at Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank and public pawnshops; and lowering house and entertainment taxes, he said.
SECURITY CONCERNS: The Telecom Technology Center ran black-box tests for the Executive Yuan on devices and software from Chinese, US and South Korean firms Network devices from several Chinese manufacturers are insecure and allow personal information to be leaked, testing commissioned by the Executive Yuan has shown. A variety of devices and software, including apps, from Chinese, US and South Korean manufacturers that are used by government agencies at the central and local level were subjected to black-box testing — in which the functionality of an application is examined without knowing about its internal structure, an information-security official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The Telecom Technology Center conducted the tests, which simulated cyberattacks, to determine their resilience to the attacks, the official said. The center
Americans awoke yesterday to charred and glass-strewn streets in dozens of cities after another night of unrest fueled by rage over the mistreatment of African Americans at the hands of police, who responded to the violence with tear gas and rubber bullets. Tens of thousands marched peacefully through streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died on Monday last week after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. However, many demonstrations sank into chaos as night fell: Vehicles and businesses were torched. The words “I can’t breathe” were
The nation marked its 49th day with no new domestic COVID-19 cases yesterday, and there were no new imported cases, but that does not mean the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) can relax its attention, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said yesterday in Tainan as he and a team of health officials wrapped up a weekend visit to the city. The visit is part of the center’s efforts to promote domestic travel under the “new disease prevention lifestyle.” Among the 442 confirmed cases, 423 have been released from isolation and 12 people remain hospitalized, Chen
EXTRA INVITATIONS: Russia, Australia, South Korea and India would be asked to a later summit dedicated to countering China, Donald Trump said US President Donald Trump has been forced to cancel a planned face-to-face summit of G7 leaders this month and now wants to host an expanded meeting in September dedicated to countering China to which Russian President Vladimir Putin would be invited. Trump on Saturday announced that he had canceled the June meeting, which he had billed as a symbol of the US “transitioning back to greatness,” after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told him in a telephone call that she saw the summit in Washington as a health risk. Hundreds of security staff, journalists and officials also attend the two-day summits. Reports suggest
RSS