In Starbucks earlier, the counter staff called out an elderly guy who wasn’t wearing a mask. He left after a minute or so.
I was also told to wear my mask properly by some bint in the NIH office. I was wearing it properly ! 
Anyway there’s a good amount of enforcement around these here parts.
Ventilation is the one area that Taiwan really falls down on (not opening the windows ).
It could be we luck out somewhat because the virus isn’t supposed to like high humidity.
I wonder how he’s going to drink his latte when he sits down at a table. Maybe he’ll drink it through his ears?
I had lunch earlier at a restaurant where none of the staff were wearing masks. YOLO.
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Everyone has windows open, all year.
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In the last 4ish hours today I’ve seen the following:
- A doctor, in a hospital, walking through the crowded waiting area talking into his phone with his mask under his chin.
- A pharmacist, in a busy pharmacy, walking around chomping something with her mouth wide open.
- Multiple MRT passengers proudly exposing their idiot noses.
- A couple of old dudes in Hi-Life, one with no mask and one chinning it like a moron.
There are cracks in the system! We need more signs telling foreign-looking people they can’t enter apartment buildings!
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I got a telling off a week or so ago in Wellcome when I’d forgotten to wear my mask. I can’t remember the last time a Taiwanese woman told me off, other than the better half.
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As per news article just coming out actually tested with rather high CT value of 17. As a result of this also 4 of her contacts put in further quarantine until Feb. 22. But since they already were in quarantine anyway, risk should be small
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That’s a good testing and quarantine regime.
I think all positive imports should be put in a military hospital in Penghu . They shouldn’t be placed in a general hospital for a start.
I think everyone coming back from abroad should be put in quarantine in the old hospital that was built into the mountain in Kinmen. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g13806653-d13273181-Reviews-Hua_Gang_Shi_Hospital-Jinhu_Kinmen.html.
Unfortunately our main international gateway airport is in Taoyuan.
You want to make them swim? 
Guy
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It’s easier to train a dog than to tell people how to wear the mask properly 
Guys, we have 10 thousand people coming in by Taoyuan Airport per day. Ain’t no place that can handle so many people.
Isolating positive imports sounds kind of good. But backlash would also be as bad.
I think bosses that send employees abroad should be the first punished for disregard of unnecessary travel.
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What amazes me is how many Taiwanese people think it’s perfectly reasonable that someone would “need” to go to Mexico “for business” right now. What could you possibly need to do in person that can’t be done via Zoom?!
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No, we don’t.
You can see for yourself here: https://www.immigration.gov.tw/5475/5478/141478/141380/184290/
The last month that data is available showed that 42,863 people entered the ROC in October via the 10 available customs posts in the country. This is a little under 1300 a day. 37,575 people entered via Taoyuan airport during the month.
In comparison, in October 2019, 2.4 million people entered the ROC during that month and 1.8 million were via Taoyuan airport.
Please, less old wives tales and more data.
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I understood Icon to be referring to arrivals NOW in February 2021 as the lunar new year is upon us.
I didn’t see her referring to October 2020 or earlier times.
Cheers,
Guy
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That would be a significant jump. But again, impossible.
See for yourself: 桃園國際機場
Per the arrivals board there are only about 20 flights arriving a day.
Assuming an average of 100 people per flight (per social distancing requirements flights to Taiwan can only fly at 1/3 capacity max) that brings us to 2000 pax/day. However, that’s an absolutely generous assumption.
Again, more data and facts, please. Taiwan expats’ love of old wives tales is annoying.
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A friend of mine is stuck in Mexico right now. What happened was that before the manure hit the fan, this person was responsible for setting up a branch office there, from scratch. COVID put a halt, then a slow down on that, but the Taiwanese bosses insist on go go go…
Sure, they claim to be responsible for all but last pal stuck in South America came back to docked pay - for quarantine costs abroad- and a company sponsored non kosher for quarantine hotel in Taipei - with 711 biengtangs 2 times a day…
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I watch the news every day. They gave that number. I think the CECC mentioned the jump from 4k to 6k people daily.
That is why our quarantine facilities and hotels are full to the brim.
TBH normal numbers for Taoyuan Airport are insane.
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Huh? They’re already “isolated”. In negative pressure rooms in Covid wards of hospitals.
Somehow, I find it hard to imagine that Taiwanese would be up in arms about people who had tested positive for Covid being isolated in a dedicated Covid facility. Frankly, I think most people here would love it.
There’s no law against leaving and coming back though, so what’s the punishment and who is leveling it?
There’s a lot.
As an example, I have a friend who had to travel domestically in the US (but didn’t want to for obvious reasons) to clean up a f*cked up situation with a key business partner that was responsible for over a third of his company’s revenue last year. The situation was such that the issue was not going to be smoothed out over Zoom. A person had to be terminated and company property in their possession accounted for and secured, and key stakeholders had to be looked in the eye and cajoled. Millions of dollars in business was at stake.
So yeah, there’s a lot you can do on Zoom but trillions of dollars of global trade, which employs countless people and feeds countless mouths, can’t continue without some IRL activities.
I think most people here would relate isolation in a single hospital to the Hoping debacle.
Businesses are not punished currently for endangerment of employees. The equivalent of the Ministry of Labor or OSHA should be responsible to track and find such businesses that cannot fathom using Zoom or Google.
You cannot demand isolation yet have road warriors on the run.
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Sure you can. They’re not at all related.
Taiwan has an export-driven economy. Business isn’t going to stop for years. Taiwan allows people to leave and come back because the authorities have decided that they’re comfortable with and capable of managing the risks associated with this. Testing, quarantine and self-health management are used to reduce the risk that people coming back infected make it into the general population while they are infected and contagious.
Once a person is found to be infected, isolation is a best practice for treating them and making sure they don’t spread the virus to others.
If you know that you are going to have people coming into your country who are infected, it’s safer to isolate them in a single place with a single dedicated staff. This significantly reduces if not eliminates the risk that medical staff who become infected could spread Covid to non-Covid staff and patients, which is what happened in the Taoyuan hospital cluster. If you have staff working on structured shifts during which time they are also isolated, you can significantly reduce if not eliminate the possibility that medical staff at the facility could introduce the virus into the general population, which is also what happened in the Taoyuan hospital cluster.
Setting up a dedicated facility that is structured to protect patients and the public is absolutely not the same thing as Hoping, which basically involved locking people into a hospital against their will. In fact, by making sure that Covid patients are isolated in a dedicated facility, you prevent this type of scenario from occurring.