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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Rules given for wholesale markets, slaughterhouses
A woman yesterday looks at vegetables on sale at the First Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market in Taipei’s Wanhua District. Photo: CNA
NEW GUIDANCE: Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung said that five measures were to be practiced all of the time and three initiated after a COVID-19 case
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） and the Council of Agriculture yesterday announced a set of recommended disease prevention guidelines for wholesale markets, which are to be implemented at more than 300 markets and slaughterhouses in Taiwan.
Several COVID-19 cluster infections have been reported at wholesale markets, including Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co’s （台北農產運銷） two fruit and vegetable wholesale markets in Taipei and a poultry slaughterhouse in New Taipei City.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung （陳吉仲） said that the guidelines established by the CECC and the council set out five general measures that markets should practice all of the time and three measures that markets should initiate when there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 infection.
The general measures are personnel health management, crowd control, hand hygiene, personal protective equipment and area disinfection, he said.
Personnel health management requires that markets make a legible list of all workers’ names so that health monitoring is feasible, Chen said, adding that the measure includes registration of the workers’ contact information and their temperature readings.
Vaccinations against COVID-19 would begin at the wholesale markets today, Chen added.
Crowd control includes setting a maximum number of people to allow at a market, designating a single entrance and single exit, readjusting the times of operation and the spacing of the vendors’ stalls, and marking a 2m space between the auctioneers and dealers so that social distancing is practiced.
Detailed suggestions for ensuring that workers practice good hand hygiene and wear personal protective equipment are included in the guidelines, as well as recommendations for cleaning the markets and disinfection plans, he added.
When there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 infection, the three measures to be initiated are risk management for the infected, risk management for the area where the infected person worked and a reduction in the market’s operational capacity, Chen said.
All close contacts of the infected worker, as well as the workers at the same stall and those of neighboring stalls, are to be placed under home isolation, while the market’s other workers must practice enhanced self-health management, he added.
In the infected area, business is to be suspended for three days while it is disinfected, Chen said.
The area must be disinfected at least twice per day, he said, adding that workers who were not close contacts of the infected person should receive a COVID-19 test every three to seven days.
A market with a confirmed case is to operate at 75 percent of its capacity and at only 50 percent of its capacity if a cluster of infections is confirmed, Chen said.
The three responsive measures are to continue until 14 days after the last confirmed case left the market to go into isolation, he added.
The recommended disease prevention guidelines for wholesale markets are to be implemented at 54 fruit, vegetable and flower wholesale markets; 176 slaughterhouses; 26 meat markets and 47 fish markets throughout the nation, Chen said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Health workers collect a nasal swab from a man at the entrance of a fruit and vegetable wholesale market in Taipei’s Wanhua District yesterday. Market staff and traders must wait for a rapid test result before entering the market. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
