Can we calculate how many are allowed in a room when Taiwan is at Level 2 for a pandemic?

I volunteer in a group that plans English services at my church. We are discussing whether we can restart our coffee corner after Sunday services. But there is some confusion about how many people are allowed to be in certain spaces these days. We have received conflicting information from our Parish Council about the capacity of the room where we used to hold the Coffee Corner - first, we were told 30 people maximum, and then we were informed the maximum was 15. At 15 people, we would simply put off organizing the Coffee Corner until whenever Taiwan goes to Level 1. (We are also examining another space in the church which is larger, but has other challenges of its own for hosting the event.)

We are seeking clarification from the Parish Council, but this got me wondering whether there is a “formula” for determining how many people can be in a space. According to the CECC’s most recent Bulletin (published yesterday):

“…capacity limit management at … public venues: a distance of at least 1.5 meters per person (2.25 square meters per person) is required indoors”

– so can we simply divide the size of the room by 2.25 and solve for x (x = maximum capacity)?

https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En/Bulletin/Detail/5zi1UWaJMYqZYXrzJ2b5-Q?typeid=158

Or is it deeper than that? After all, it’s one thing to have a proper meeting where you space-out each seat so there is at least 1.5m between participants and another thing to have a social Coffee Corner where no one is expected to be seated and everyone is expected to be talking to each other in small groups (i.e., no meaningful social distancing?)

tldr: is there a guide on how to calculate the maximum number of people permitted in a venue under Level 2 pandemic conditions in Taiwan?


Btw, this is a routine use-case for Algebra in real life

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It probably depends on how you define ‘space’.

If you consider the fractal nature of the boundary, the perimeter has infinite length, therefore the meeting room must have infinite volume, and you are permitted to put an infinite number of people inside.

More pragmatically, you might take the entire footprint of the building and announce that people are allowed to sit or stand anywhere they like within that area for the purposes of the meeting. Use your 2.25sq.m figure to calculate the critical number of people which causes spontaneous generation of coronavirus.

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