Residents of the resort town of Kenting have been alarmed by a surge of holidaymakers coming to enjoy the long weekend. Many travelers are failing to observe social distancing or even wear masks, drawing rebukes from police and health professionals. Health minister Chen Shih-chung has once more appealed for the public to keep space between others in public and to wear masks. He warned harsher rules may be the only recourse if citizens don’t adjust their behavior of their own accord.Police broadcast from their car loudspeaker, imploring the crowds to keep 1 meter apart.Holidaymakers pay no mind. Then Hengchun’s local police chief, Chen Hung-chung, takes to the streets himself to spread the message. But as you can see, the crowds on Kenting’s night market barely spare him a glance, let alone heeding the call to observe social distancing guidelines. Almost half are not even wearing masks.Resident of KentingI am worried, actually, yeah. It feels like there are more and more people here. The night market feels quite dangerous.On the first day of the Tomb Sweeping Festival long weekend, more than 20,000 revelers descended on Kenting, a resort town at the far southern tip of Taiwan. The stern warnings of police seem like water off a duck’s back to them. Local residents, however, are alarmed. And one nurse was so irate that she went online to blast the holidaymakers. She pointed out that after hordes of Taiwanese went abroad for the public holiday at the end of February, dozens of imported COVID-19 cases ushered in a new peak of the pandemic in Taiwan. Now crowds are treating this holiday like any other: she dare not think what’s coming next.Chen Shih-chungCentral Epidemic Command CenterI saw the TV reports about people in Kenting this morning. It’s good to go out for a walk. We need some time for exercise and keeping ourselves sane. But if the epidemic grows, we may not even be able to go out for walks. We must observe social distancing. When that is impossible, we must wear masks.Citizens are growing weary of the constraints of pandemic life. But Chen Shih-chung is clear in his message: social distancing and masks are not optional. If people don’t pay attention, the government may have to impose a ban on leaving the house.Chen Shih-chungCentral Epidemic Command CenterWe don’t want to enforce hard rules about everything, or impose harsh penalties. We are relying on our high standards of integrity, our autonomy. It’s been about 70 days now. We’ve been relying on this and we’ve been able to demonstrate our highly effective pandemic response to the world.For now, the health minister is hoping to appeal to Taiwan’s best instincts and inspire citizens to voluntarily do the responsible thing. It remains to be seen how Taiwan will look a week from now, when Tomb Sweeping hijinks are just a memory.
