CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: ’Ordering the businesses to suspend operations was easy, but no one wants to take the responsibility for reopening them,’ the mayor said

Taipei Times
Date: May 11, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) instruction that local governments can decide whether hostess clubs and dance halls can reopen is a typical example of the central government’s unwillingness to take responsibility, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.

Ko made the remark in response to media queries on the sidelines of a blessing ceremony held at Taipei’s Sung Shan Tsu Huei Temple (松山慈惠堂) yesterday morning.

The CECC on April 9 ordered all hostess clubs and dance halls to suspend operations after a case of locally transmitted COVID-19 involving a hostess in northern Taiwan was confirmed the day before.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, on Friday said that local governments should assess whether businesses temporarily suspended due to disease prevention conform to disease prevention and safety requirements before giving them the green light to reopen.    [FULL  STORY]