《TAIPEI TIMES》 Disinfection teams sweep across the nation

By Yang Mien-chieh, Chen Hsin-yu and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Popular tourist spots and transportation hubs nationwide were disinfected yesterday to prevent a spike of COVID-19 cases following the Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend, the Environmental Protection Administration （EPA） said.

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Environmental protection departments in cities and counties dispatched special squads, made up of 731 employees, who disinfected 863 locations, including 205 transportation hubs and 250 business areas, the EPA said.

These included popular tourist spots that the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） had cited in its text messages on Saturday, when it reminded the public to avoid crowded places and keep a proper social distance, including Kenting （墾丁） and Hengchun Old Street （恆春老街） in Pingtung County, Dongdamen Night Market （東大門夜市） in Hualien County and Guanzihling （關子嶺） in Tainan, it said.

The EPA reminded business owners that they should be following its disinfection guidelines and clean their indoor areas at least once per day, or more if their businesses get a lot of foot traffic.

The guidelines state that items that are frequently touched, such as service counters, tables and chairs, elevator buttons, escalator handrails, shopping carts, doorknobs, water taps, toilet seats and flush handles, diaper-changing tables and floor surfaces, should get special attention.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the CECC, yesterday reminded the public to practice good personal hygiene and self-health monitoring following the long weekend.

The center said that it would be reviewing the crowds seen at some tourist spots over the holiday weekend to see if further crowd control measures should be imposed during the Workers’ Day long weekend from May 1 to May 3.

These could include designating more car-free zones to help widen the social distance space for pedestrians and limiting the number of guests that hotels could accept, it said.

Crowded areas were also on the mind of New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi （侯友宜） yesterday.

At a meeting about New Taipei City’s COVID-19 prevention measures, Hou said seeing scenic areas packed with holidaymakers had saddened him, as “all the hard work during the disease prevention period would mean nothing as long as there are loopholes.”

Local governments must be fully prepared to roll out more preventive measures, including tourist number controls, crowd diversion, and restrictions on hotel bookings, to perhaps 70 or 80 percent of their original thresholds.

Effective today, anyone not wearing mask would be barred from entering New Taipei City government buildings, including officials, Hou said.

Additional reporting by Chien Hui-ju and Lee I-chia

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES