Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
A Taiwanese man has been handed a fine of over 28,000 GBP after police found him dancing in a nightclub while he was meant to be self-quarantining at home.
Officers in the island’s capital of Taipei were conducting a routine inspection of crowded establishments including clubs and bars when they discovered 35-year-old Mr Huang’s quarantine status yesterday (22nd March).
Police across the self-ruled island are equipped with cloud-based service ‘M-Police’, which allows authorised users to check an individual user’s status in seconds.
Mr Huang, who had returned to Taiwan from Cambodia on 18th March, was given the mandatory order to self-quarantine for 14 days until 2nd April.
He was arrested in Taipei’s Omni Nightclub and moved immediately to a quarantine facility run by the island’s centralised epidemic control centre, which was activated even before coronavirus epicentre Wuhan was put on lockdown.
Mr Huang, whose registered residence is in neighbouring New Taipei City, was issued a fine of 1 million TWD (28,220 GBP) for breaching the island’s strict quarantine law.
Mr Huang’s visiting of a “crowded and enclosed space” was deemed “malicious”, resulting in the heavy punishment, the municipal Department of Health said in a statement.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih said in a press conference today (23rd March): “I will not go soft on you. If you leave your home, I will fine you.”
Those found to have taken public transport while flouting a quarantine order will be fined up to 2 million TWD (56,850 GBP), reports said.
Before the latest fine, 55 people had been found skipping quarantine, resulting in fines totalling 3.3 million TWD (93,890 GBP).
Mr Huang’s punishment brings quarantine-related fines to 4.3 million TWD (122,360 GBP).
Taiwan’s model response to the coronavirus outbreak is the result of lessons learned during the 2002 SARS outbreak. The island has yet to order a lockdown.
Schools across all years remain open, with rigorous temperature and symptom screening taking place at gates and in classrooms.
A recent spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which there are 195 in total, has mostly come from Taiwan nationals returning from Europe and the United States.
Confirmed or highly suspected individuals ordered to self-isolate by Taiwan Centers for Disease Control are being monitored via their mobile phone SIM card’s GPS signal.
The island has banned all foreign nationals from entering, while passport holders must self-isolate for at least 14 days from date of entry.
The island, which has a population of 23.7 million, has recorded two COVID-19-related deaths to date.
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