Authorities in central Taiwan yesterday fined three people for breaching their home quarantine.
Police in Changhua County’s Yuanlin City (員林) questioned a man, surnamed Chen (陳), and his wife, surnamed Hsieh (謝), for contravening their 14-day home quarantine after returning from Europe.
Police said they were tipped off by residents, who saw the couple outdoors. With the help of street surveillance cameras, they were able track the duo down. They found that Chen had driven a car to work, while Hsieh said she went out to buy medical supplies at a drugstore.
“The couple returned to Taiwan from Europe the previous week and, as ordered by health authorities, they were to stay home for 14 days to prevent the spread of the Wuhan virus,” Yuanlin Police Precinct Chief Hung Wen-hung (洪文宏) told reporters.
Hung said the couple was fined NT$300,000 (US$9,893) each for breaching the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例規定).
People under quarantine should ask relatives or friends for assistance and delivery of essential goods, he added.
In Chiayi, police caught a quarantine breaker by accident at a traffic stop.
Police noticed a man on a motorcycle while he was waiting for the lights to change because his helmet was not fastened.
They approached the man, surnamed Lee (李), and while checking his identity, found that he had breached his home quarantine after returning from Malaysia.
Lee could be fined up to NT$1 million for breaking quarantine, they said.
In New Taipei City, prosecutors summoned Harry Lee (李來希), head of the Alliance for Monitoring Pension Reform, to appear in court on Monday next week for allegedly spreading misinformation on Facebook.
Harry Lee, known for his vocal opposition to the government’s pension reform measures, had posted a photograph of a fatal accident on March 13 in which a female motorist was killed by a truck on a street in Hsinchu City.
The motorist “was run over and died, because she was going to wait in line to buy medical masks,” Harry Lee wrote on Facebook.
Ministry of Justice officials said that an investigation showed the motorist was killed when she was trying to change to an inside lane because of an illegally parked van.
The incident had nothing to do with lining up to buy masks, they said.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau also received complaints about Harry Lee’s post and after reviewing the evidence, sent him a notice to appear at the bureau to answer questions about the complaint.
After Harry Lee ignored the notice, New Taipei City prosecutors issued a summons for him to appear in court for allegedly spreading misinformation about the pandemic.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS