Virus Outbreak: New Taipei City man fined, taken to quarantine center

REPEAT OFFENDER: The man went outside for exercise on Wednesday and then left his home on Saturday with his girlfriend, officials said

By Hsu Sheng-lun, Tsai Chang-sheng and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writer





A New Taipei City man has been fined NT$400,000 (US$13,221) and ordered into government quarantine after breaking home quarantine for a second time on Saturday.

The 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳) returned to Taiwan on Sunday last week and was ordered to home quarantine until Sunday.

He was seen leaving his home on a scooter with his girlfriend on Saturday, three days after he was fined NT$200,000 for going outside to exercise, police said.

A worker from a New Taipei City district office, second left, yesterday delivers a 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen, right, to the city’s quarantine center after he was ordered confined for contravening home quarantine since returning to Taiwan on March 22. Photo: Hsu Sheng-lun, Taipei Times

Chen has now been placed in a quarantine center arranged by the district office and health center of the district where he lives, police said.

Police warned the public that breaking home quarantine could help spread COVID-19, and offenders would face heavy fines.

In related news, the Hsinchu Branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency said it has established a contact window to expedite the handling and enforcement of home quarantine violation cases in Hsinchu city and county and Miaoli County.

People who fail to pay fines for contravening quarantine regulations within the required timeframe would be reported to the branch, which said it could force payment through compulsory seizure of properties, issuing restrictions on leaving the nation or going out to sea, or filing arrest and custody orders with the courts if necessary.

The branch yesterday said it had received its first case, a Thai woman who has failed to pay a NT$300,000 fine for breaking home quarantine on Sunday last week, and has notified border control authorities that she is not allowed to leave the country.

It would take further action after the woman finishes her quarantine period, the bureau said.

Six fines have been issued in Miaoli County for breaking home quarantines and four, totaling NT$40,000, have been paid so far, it said.

The Thai woman’s fine is one of the two unpaid NT$300,000 ones, it added.

There have been 11 fines imposed in Hsinchu City, and five — with a total value of NT$350,000 — have been paid, while the unpaid ones total NT$750,000, it said.

Hsinchu County has only one fine, a NT$1 million penalty imposed upon Lin Tung-ching (林東京) for “malicious” infractions of the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) by changing residences multiple times after his return from China on Feb. 25 and visiting several locations in Taipei and New Taipei City during his home quarantine period.

He has not paid the fine, the bureau said.