2020-02-24
People Entering from China, Hong Kong, and Macau must Undergo 14 Days of Quarantine
Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center: People Entering from China, Hong Kong, and Macau must Undergo 14 Days of Quarantine.
Additionally, people coming from affected areas, or who have been in contact with or suspected patients or suspected patients with communicable diseases must undergo self-imposed home-based quarantine, camp quarantine, isolation care, or other necessary measures according to Article 58 of the Communicable Disease Control Act (Act). Anyone who violates these conditions shall be fined an amount from NT$ 10,000 up to NT$ 150,000
Recently, a man who was required to stay in his home for self-quarantine, left his home and stood outside beside his house. He was fined the amount of NT$ 30,000 for this violation of the Act. In another case, an American citizen took a flight from Guangdong, China to Taiwan, and was required to undergo home self-quarantine. Said man left his house for six minutes to smoke a cigarette and as a consequence, was fined the amount of NT$ 10,000.
The Act has given rise to discussion regarding human rights issues. For instance, personal freedom is restricted for people who are required to self-quarantine. Moreover, the information regarding a person's entry and exit is being disclosed to the health care institutions by the NHI (National Health Insurance) card may create concerns regarding the infringement of people's right to privacy.
Article 23 of the Taiwan Constitution guarantees the people's freedoms and rights, which cannot be restricted by law, except as may be necessary to prevent infringement upon the freedoms of other persons, to avert imminent crisis, to maintain social order, or to advance the public welfare.
In recent cases, the level of sharing of the databases of the health insurance administration and the Immigration Department is based on the assessment of the epidemic development in the epidemic area. Such sharing is deemed to be useful to control the spread of the current epidemic. Moreover, the disclosures of personal data are not unlimited. At present, data over 30 days is stored in the health insurance database and not on the reminder list. As a result, this level of storage and sharing is considered to be the least restrictive alternative.
For the sake of protecting the public welfare, the disclosure and the use of travel history data by the Government is deemed a necessity.
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