Extracurricular winter sessions at all schools in Taoyuan have been canceled with immediate effect, as the city battles a community cluster of COVID-19 cases that has now reached 15, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said yesterday.
School facilities will not be available for winter camps or any other activities, such as volunteer group or student club meetings, Cheng said, after the city on Sunday recorded two more cases in the COVID-19 cluster that started at Taoyuan General Hospital.
Following the end of the fall semester last week, elementary and junior-high schools were scheduled to start supplementary winter classes yesterday, but the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Sunday announced that about 5,000 people would have to go into home quarantine as part of its efforts to contain the disease.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan City Government via CNA
The 5,000 include patients who were discharged from the hospital from Jan. 6 to 19, and their close contacts, the CECC said.
City government officials said that most of the 5,000 are people who live in Taoyuan, with an estimated 500 in New Taipei City, more than 40 in Taipei and two in Keelung.
Cheng yesterday said that the CECC home quarantine order has been the “biggest challenge” for the city since the outbreak began, given the large number of people required to quarantine.
Photo: Lin Kuo-hsien, Taipei Times
The Taoyuan Department of Public Health is responsible for notifying those who must quarantine, while other branches of the city government provides assistance to implement the order, he said.
A service center is to be set up to offer online medical consultation and other assistance to those in quarantine, Cheng said.
With 15 COVID-19 cases confirmed in the Taoyuan community cluster, all large-scale gatherings that had been scheduled to take place in the city before the end of next month have been either canceled or postponed, he said.
The city’s COVID-19 disease prevention efforts include disinfection of business districts, major transportation hubs and other public areas, he said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, smartphone maker HTC Corp and several other high-tech companies that have factories in Taoyuan are taking steps to prevent further spread of the disease.
Hon Hai said that employees at its Taoyuan factory have been advised to avoid traveling outside the city, and that it has suspended its shuttle bus service between its factories nationwide.
HTC in a statement said that employees at its Taoyuan plant who can work from home have been asked to do so, and all of its staff meetings have been moved online, while its shuttle bus service between its headquarters in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) and its factory in Taoyuan has been suspended.
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