An unlucky Philippine man has been slapped with a heavy fine by Taiwanese authorities over leaving his room for mere seconds while he was subject to a mandatory 14-day Covid-19 quarantine.
The quarantine-defying man, said to be a migrant worker from the Philippines, was fined a hefty sum of 100,000 Taiwanese dollars (around $3,600) for an extremely brief breach of the mandatory isolation period. He was staying at a quarantine hotel in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung last month.
Surveillance footage of the incident, released by local authorities, shows the man leaving his room without permission to give something to a fellow quarantined individual. The two apparently tried to maintain social distancing, as the ‘offender’ simply left the item on a table for another man to pick it up.
The whole daring ‘quarantine breach’ lasted some eight seconds but turned out to be extremely costly. It was not immediately clear whether the second individual faced any consequences over his involvement.
Taiwan has implemented some of the toughest coronavirus restrictions around the world, subjecting any arriving people, citizens and foreigners alike, to strict quarantine.
The island, which Beijing sees as an integral part of China, has a population of some 23 million, but it has reported only 700 cases of the disease since the beginning of the pandemic.
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