TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — One by one, local governments announced Friday (July 9) and Saturday (July 10) that they wanted to restrict restaurants to takeout services until July 26 despite a decision by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to allow indoor dining to resume next week.
Hualien County on the sparsely populated east coast was the last region on Taiwan’s main island to change its mind and maintain the ban on indoor dining, in a decision announced late Saturday.
As the daily number of new COVID infections gradually fell, the CECC saw the time ripe to announce measures easing restrictions beginning July 13. However, local governments argued that the restaurant measure had come too suddenly and too early, UDN reported.
New Taipei City was the first of Taiwan’s six special municipalities to announce it would not follow suit. While the city agreed with the reopening of museums and park areas, it rejected the restaurant measure, arguing there were still too many unclear infection clusters.
Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) followed suit, saying that restaurants should be the last to reopen as infections were more likely to occur on their premises. By Saturday morning, more than 10 cities and counties announced they would keep the ban on eating inside restaurants.
During the day, several local governments which had initially welcomed the CECC decision went back on their decision and said they wanted to keep the ban after all.
Among them was Tainan City, the only special municipality initially in sync with the central government. Critics said the town should not sacrifice the health of its citizens for the sake of attracting tourists from other parts of the country, though others expressed fears that many businesses might not survive the extension of the ban.
Later in the day, less populated counties in central and east Taiwan which had initially only wanted to ban dining at night markets also reversed course.