Xinhua News Agency, Taipei, April 2 (Reporters Fu Shuangqi and Wu Jihai) Passengers with luggage and masks hurriedly walked into the platform of the Taipei Railway Station. The infrared thermometer next to the ticket gate was immediately above the passenger's head. His temperature readings appeared; passengers who did not have temperature readings were stopped by staff and manually detected the forehead temperature with a temperature gun.
On the 2nd, Taiwan began the four-day Qingming holiday. The reporter saw at Taipei Station that the new rules implemented on the 1st for passengers entering the station have been fully implemented: Taiwan's various public transportation comprehensively measures body temperature and requires passengers to wear masks.
The reporter saw that there were some passengers in the waiting room, most of them were wearing masks, and they kept a certain distance from each other. The Taiwan Epidemic Epidemic Command Center's suggestion to maintain "social distance" is 1.5 meters or more indoor and 1 meter or more outdoors. However, the reporter saw that many people were chatting side by side.
The trains of several trains departing on the platform appeared empty, and the crowded cars did not exceed 10 passengers. Staff at Taipei Station said that compared with previous Qingming Festival holidays, the number of passengers has decreased significantly. However, epidemic prevention tasks are heavy and work has not been easier.
According to reports, some of the smaller train stations on the island are not equipped with infrared temperature measuring devices like Taipei Station. Instead, they measure the temperature manually, causing passengers to queue up at the station.
Miss Xu, who was working in Taipei, took the high-speed rail to her hometown of Tainan in the afternoon on the 2nd. "Considering that there will be a lot of people last night, I bought a ticket for this afternoon specifically and missed the peak of the flow of people." She said that she would wear a mask throughout the car and try not to eat. I would stay at home and not eat outside. Many of her friends abandoned plans for the Ching Ming Festival due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
Mr. Chen and Ms. Huang chose to return to their hometown in Hsinchu one week in advance to sweep the grave, while staying in Taipei during the Qingming holiday. "We are going to climb mountains, go to the nature, exercise and strengthen our resistance, without wearing a mask." Ms. Huang said.
Due to the popularity of cremation, the Qingming Festival of most Taiwanese also changed from burning incense and burning paper money to the cemetery to worship the spiritual bone tower. Affected by the epidemic, some spirit bone towers refused to sacrifice the sacrifice, and many citizens voluntarily gave up the sacrifice. Taipei citizen Mr. Xie returned to his hometown of Kaohsiung by high-speed rail at noon on the 2nd, but he did not plan to go to the grave with his family and try not to go out to eat.
According to Taiwan's high-speed rail statistics, the high-speed rail transported 167,000 passengers on the 1st. The overall condition was smooth. About 0.15% of the passengers did not wear masks, and one passenger was denied boarding due to a fever.
Because the epidemic situation continues to be severe, many passengers choose to travel by car, so highway traffic still presents a festive atmosphere. Traffic on some of the main roads going south started to rise on the afternoon of the first day, and the number of road traffic to Kenting and Taitung in southern Taiwan increased significantly. On the morning of the 2nd, there were nearly 3,000 vehicles on the southbound section for one hour.
Taiwan ’s transportation authority estimates that the average traffic volume of arterial roads on the first day of the holiday will be 1.4 times that of weekdays, and some major highways may have traffic jams for about 10 hours.
According to statistics from the Taiwan Epidemic Epidemic Command Center on the 2nd, a total of 339 confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia in Taiwan were reported, of which 5 people died.
Some media and experts worry that during the 4-day holiday of the Ching Ming Festival, an increase in the number of people going out may lead to a "breakout" in epidemic prevention. The Taiwan authorities have issued a number of measures for epidemic prevention and upgrading in recent days, including requiring the people to maintain social distance as much as possible.
"At least the supply of masks must be sufficient for epidemic prevention, but now they always have to wait in line to buy masks, and they may not be able to buy them. This makes many people dissatisfied." Mr. Xie said.