Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwan has been lauded worldwide for its rapid response to COVID-19 but as it battens down the hatches amid a sudden new outbreak of the disease a big weakness has emerged from an unexpected corner: its workplace culture.
As Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center raised the alert to “Level 3” in Taipei and New Taipei City, home to almost a third of Taiwan’s population, over the weekend they imposed new restrictions on the size of gatherings and made face masks obligatory in public. They also urged employers to allow people to work from home.
Streets were empty over the weekend as residents hunkered down at home. But come Monday it seemed everyone was heading to work even though the outbreak was emerging as the most serious one to hit the island since December 2019.
2021/05/20 10:58 Taipei City Hospital Heping Branch. Taipei City Hospital Heping Branch. (CNA photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) The Taipei City Hospital Heping Branch reported Thursday (May 20) that two additional patients and three employees are infected with the coronavirus and that it will be closed to outpatients until May 28. On May 13, two inpatients at the hospital were confirmed to be positive for COVID-19. Fearing a nosocomial outbreak, emergency room operations were temporarily suspended, 50 staff members were tested, and inpatients were told they could no longer re-enter the hospital once they left. One week later, the hospital has announced that two more patients have tested positive for the disease. Officials stated that they do not believe the patients contracted the disease in the hospital and that they had recently been in Taipei s Wanhua District, a hotspot for infections in the city, r
Taipei, May 20 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Thursday issued an alert to people outside Taipei who recently visited the city’s Wanhua District, advising them to get tested for COVID-19 if they develop any symptoms of the disease, as a cluster infection in that area continued to grow.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC, 中央流行疫情指揮中心) asked those who have been to high-risks areas in Wanhua District between April 20 and May 19 to be on the lookout for alerts sent from the CECC.