The expansion of the epidemic in Taiwan without pay leave has soared, which is the scourge of quarantine loopholes

Source: Huaxia Graticule

The outbreak of a new wave of local COVID-19 in Taiwan has greatly affected the catering industry by reducing the number of people eating out. \Profile image from The Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao

Huaxia Jingwei Network, January 20: Comprehensive Hong Kong and Taiwan media news, the new crown epidemic on the island has continued to expand in recent days, and the impact on Taiwan's economy has become even worse. The latest statistics from Taiwan show that 1981 enterprises in Taiwan have implemented unpaid leave, and the number of people who take unpaid leave has reached 11247, of which the tourism industry has the largest number of unpaid leave. People in Taiwan's industry said that due to the continuation of the epidemic, people cannot travel, and the tourism industry is expected to be difficult to recover in the first half of this year.

Unpaid leave can be up to six months

The COVID-19 pandemic on the island continues, impacting economic activity in Taiwan. According to the China News Agency, the competent department of labor affairs of the Taiwan authorities announced the latest statistics on unpaid leave on the 17th, with a total of 1981 enterprises and 11247 people taking unpaid leave, an increase of 184 and 1759 over the previous period, of which 99 travel agencies and 1362 people were the most.

Taiwan's labor department said that the rebound in the number of unpaid leave in this period is mainly to support the service industry (travel agencies), and most travel agencies are mainly affected by border control, because because of the epidemic, the Taiwan authorities still have many restrictions on the entry and exit of tourist groups.

It is worth noting that most of the recent unpaid leave has been implemented for more than 6 months, which is longer than the past 4 to 6 months, or less than 3 months. Authorities said that because the current implementation of unpaid leave is based on industries that are more affected by border controls, such as transportation, airlines, and hotels with international tourists, these industries have a large number of people, and relatively speaking, the implementation time will be longer than that of general industries.

Some Kaohsiung people said that the red meat soup sold in roadside stalls has risen from a bowl of NT$30 to 50 yuan, an ordinary bento is 100 yuan, and I can eat very full as long as 70 yuan before, "Now everything is rising, only the salary is not rising, and I can't afford anything."

Quarantine loopholes are a recipe for trouble

According to the Ta Kung Pao, Li Qiyue, spokesman for the Taiwan Travel Industry Quality Assurance Association, said that the number of unpaid leave in most travel agencies has increased, mainly affected by the epidemic. "At present, in the case of border control, it is difficult to travel overseas. Although the scale of taiwan's intra-island tourism is 140 million people a year, only 10% of them are arranged through travel agencies, and most of them are one-day or two-day tours, and travel agencies do not make much profit, and travel agencies can only ask employees to take unpaid leave to temporarily stop the business crisis.

Li Qiyue said that Taiwan has recently erupted in the local epidemic, many people's Lunar New Year travel plans have been disrupted, and the industry has received calls from tourists to leave the group. The current quarantine policy of the Taiwan authorities has loopholes, and the epidemic is likely to continue for some time, and it is expected that the probability of the recovery of tourism on the island in the first half of this year is very low.

Some people in Taipei said that the epidemic in Taiwan has caused a number of cluster infections, which have seriously affected Taiwan's transportation, catering and service industries. The epidemic is raging, everyone is at risk, reducing travel consumption, and the current market situation is indeed a depression.

Another Taipei resident who opens a breakfast restaurant believes that the authorities will only create exaggerated words such as "advance deployment" and "correction and return" to fool ordinary people. Because of the epidemic, the store already owes a lot of money, the contract has not expired, in order to maintain my livelihood, I also work another job, tighten the belt of my pants and live a hard life.