My wife and I have been talking at length about moving to Taiwan. We have come to terms with a possible quarantine (although not very long at this point with 3+4). The biggest issue that we have right now is the mask outside situation.
Now, I realize that there have been many “adjustments” to the mask rules. What are the real, on the street situations with mask wearing outside? Now that walking is considered exercise, and exempt to mask wearing, when is everyone wearing masks outside? And when are most people not wearing masks outside? We really interested as to what the real life situation is with this in Taiwan.
It’s already being discussed/complained about endlessly in like three other threads, and who knows what it’ll be like when you actually get here.
Depends on what the CECC’s Magic 8 Ball tells them to do, and/or whose orifice they pull their quota of rules out of this week, next week, the week after that, and so on.
In no way did I say that I have issues with masks. When they make sense to wear, I am completely fine with it.
I really just wanted to know what the situation outside is like, in real life, in Taiwan. The amount of confusion with all of the changes to the rules makes it very confusing to know what real life is like in Taiwan right now.
I didn’t really intend that this be a complaint thread - just more me being interested to know what exactly the case is in public right now - we may end up in Taiwan sooner rather than later.
This appears to be from the Central Epidemic Command Center, on July 19:
This is a tweet from cookiebandit, who apparently was present at or had other access to the relevant CECC press conference:
I live on a fairly well-traveled street in Banqiao District, New Taipei City. The sidewalks on either side of the street get a pretty good deal of foot traffic, and the streets themselves get a good deal of vehicular traffic, including scooters. So far, since (1) the CECC’s apparent relaxation of the mask rule for exercising, coupled with the CECC’s apparent inclusion of walking in the definition of exercising, and (2) the CECC’s apparent relaxed mask requirements for scooter drivers and some scooter passengers, I’ve been occasionally looking out my apartment window at the pedestrians below, and it’s been quite unusual to see a pedestrian without a mask. If I’ve seen something like that, I’m guessing it might have had something to do with smoking or eating. But so far, what I’ve mainly seen–almost exclusively seen–is just about everybody wearing masks. And that goes for scooter drivers and passengers as well, bearing in mind that it has sometimes been difficult for me to tell whether a helmeted scooter driver or passenger is wearing a mask.
But those are just my observations, so far, of my little area of my street in Banqiao District, in New Taipei City.
A week ago they lifted the requirement to wear masks while on a scooter. Right now in Taipei, I guess 96% of riders still wear masks up on their noses, 3 percent wear one just below the nose, and one percent have one on their chin. Behind buildings, you see people smoking (without masks).
Maybe I missed it, but at least in the above tweet, I don’t see where cookiebandit uses the word sports.
I got the word sports from this announcement, which is part of series of announcements which I think @MalcolmReynolds has been posting on a daily or near-daily basis.
The particular announcement in question contains an image of the above tweet by cookiebandit, but I don’t see where cookiebandit mistranslates exercise as sports.
But your point is taken, that this thread is definitely too rich for my blood. In the future, I’ll do my very best to confine my role in these kinds of threads to that of a reader.
As I interpret it, you’re now allowed to go maskless outside as long as you can maintain social distancing, which means you’re technically supposed to still mask up nearly everywhere in Taipei City because there’s so much population density.
I post an attempt to be helpful. In response, you mischaracterize my post. I post a clarification. In response, you pretty much cuss me out. I post a further clarification. In response, you appear to be accusing me of blame-shifting.
Over the years, I’ve noticed, because of some of my students’ answers to questions, that at least some of them seem to think of sports and exercise as meaning (or encompassing) the same thing(s) or at least as meaning something similar (which is understandable). I never gave it much thought until today.
