Law passes to disclose personal information of quarantine offenders

ROC Central News Agency

02/25/2020 09:57 PM

Taipei, Feb. 25 (CNA) Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed an article Tuesday to allow the government to disclose the personal information of offenders who flout COVID-19 coronavirus quarantine rules.

The article, which is part of an 18-article bill designed to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, cleared its third reading in the Legislative Yuan that day.

It allows the chief of the Central Epidemic Command Center to permit filming, photographing and disclosing the personal information of people who violate their home isolation or quarantine obligations.

Under the quarantine rules, people who are subject to home isolation or quarantine must remain at home or at a designated place of quarantine with electronic monitoring for 14 days.

There are over 20,000 people currently undergoing home isolation or quarantine, according to Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春).

The bill also raises significantly the penalties for violating quarantine terms, with individuals who violate their 14-day home quarantine terms facing fines of between NT$100,000 (US$3,291) and NT$1 million, up from the NT$10,000 to NT$150,000 stipulated under the Communicable Disease Control Act.

Those who violate the home isolation terms will be fined between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million.

In addition, people who drive up the prices of supplies related to disease prevention or hoard such supplies will face prison terms of up to five years or fines of up to NT$5 million, while those who disseminate false information regarding the virus will face up to three years in prison or fines of up to NT$3 million.

President Tsai Ing-Wen (蔡英文) thanked both the ruling and opposition parties for allowing passage of the bill in a relatively short period of time.

According to the CECC, of Taiwan's 31 confirmed COVID-19 cases, one person has died and five have been released from hospitals, while the remaining 25 are under medical quarantine.

(By Wang Yang-yu, Wen Kuei-hsiang and William Yen)

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