Cellphones tracked, restaurants with X's taped on every other chair, thermometers to enter a building. Taiwan shows that the post-virus normal is different.
“Initially, some people complained that it was inconvenient, but we have no choice. We have to fight the epidemic,” said Jackie Liu, a manager at a sports complex in Taipei."If we find anyone with a fever, we notify the government."Ann Wang / Reuters file
Building security guards like Chan Wen-guang now must check the temperature of everyone walking in; he checks 100 to 150 people daily. Some restaurants like his have taped a big X on every other chair so that no one sits next to - or across from - anyone else.Business has fallen by 20 percent, Chen said. But the restaurant is receiving more takeout and delivery orders than before.
Tseng Chiung-mei, a borough chief in Taipei, calls people in mandatory quarantine twice a day to make sure they are home and to check if they have symptoms.Taiwan's borough chiefs, the lowest level elected officials, now must call people quarantined in their jurisdiction twice a day to make sure they are not fooling authorities by leaving their tracked phone at home while they go out.
“They would call me and ask me to help them buy a boxed meal, instant noodles or a thermometer, because they couldn’t go out,” Tseng said."They also call us to help them take out their garbage, because their building’s janitor doesn't dare to. Some even say they’re very bored and call us to chat with them."In Taiwan, social distancing guidelines are generally followed voluntarily.
Since fans were not allowed, one stadium set up mannequins and cardboard cutouts of fans to boost the players’ morale.But while similar measures have worked in Taiwan and other places, such as Hong Kong, not all countries or territories will be able to duplicate them, said Keiji Fukuda, a former World Health Organization disease expert who is now director of Hong Kong University’s School of Public Health.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The only baseball in the world right now is in Taiwan — and they need English broadcastersWith America's pastime shuttered, Richard Wang and Wayne McNeil have been filling the void of U.S. hits, runs and errors.
Read more »
Prince Charles Unexpectedly Reveals He's Watching 'the Funniest' Viral Videos While in IsolationQueen Elizabeth's son highlighted the important role U.K. farmers are playing during the COVID-19 pandemic
Read more »
As an Experienced Stress Baker, I Have Never Felt Less Like Making BreadThis story about bread by sarah_jacoby is what broke me today.
Read more »
Europe's Economy Was Hit Hard Too, But Jobs Didn't Disappear Like In The U.S.Many governments are handling unemployment differently than the United States. The U.K. recently began paying 80% of the salaries of workers laid off because of the coronavirus crisis.
Read more »
Argentina’s make-or-break moment“Between pandemic and debt, now maybe default, it looks like double jeopardy,” says a presidential adviser
Read more »