Legislature plans video conference on coronavirus concern

ROC Central News Agency

03/09/2020 07:33 PM

Taipei, March 9 (CNA) If there are two legislators or more confirmed with COVID-19, the Legislative Yuan will use video conferencing for its sessions, Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉), secretary-general of the Legislative Yuan, said Monday, as the virus continued to spread globally.

The Legislature is making preparations for the worst-case scenario should the virus make its way into the country's highest lawmaking body and result in legislators or workers being placed under quarantine, Lin said while giving a report on the Legislative Yuan's preventive measures.

If there is one confirmed case of a legislator contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, those who have come into contact with the case will be required to undergo self-monitoring of their health. In such a scenario, some meetings at the Legislative Yuan will be halted, Lin said.

If two or more cases occur, all the meeting rooms in the law-making venue will no longer be used and sessions will be conducted using a virtual format, including video conferencing, Lin added.

In that scenario, legislators will be asked to attend video conferences using public laptops assigned to them. Such meetings will allow up to 200 attendees, according to Chang Meng-yuan (張孟元), the chief of the information technology division at the Legislative Yuan.

(By Chen Chun-hua and Evelyn Kao)

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