Restaurants and food establishments in Taipei City and New Taipei City will re-open for dine-in starting from August 3

Taipei City and New Taipei City announced that they will allow restaurants to re-open for dine-in starting from August 3, but they still ask the restaurant operators to follow epidemic prevention measures. If customers or employees are diagnosed with Covid-19, they must close for 3 days and when they reopen for business, for the first 11 days, they can only offer take out or delivery, not dine-in.

In addition, the Taipei City Government’s principle for the re-opening of restaurants for dine-in is that the average number of new confirmed cases per week must be less than ten; the average number of cases with unknown source of infection must be less than two per week; and community gatherings must be less than three per week. If these numbers are exceeded, the epidemic alert will be raised.

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The internal guidelines were released, and the maximum penalty for violations is NT$15,000. Photo/Provided by Taipei City Government

Taipei Mayor Ke Wen-che (台北市長柯文哲) pointed out that after restaurants re-opened for dine-in, the restaurants must be serious with epidemic prevention in two aspects. One is the customer side, especially the buffet type, wherein the food is provided by the service staff.  The restaurants offering buffet are encouraged to provide set meals instead, and each table should be separated by 1.5 meters. If they cannot follow the distance requirement, they must use private rooms, screens or partitions. For tables that cannot have alternate seating, they must use partitions. The second is about employees, they must implement self-health monitoring. If they are not yet vaccinated, they must be tested weekly, and they must clean and disinfect daily to ensure the health and safety of all employees. For restaurants that do not meet the above standards, a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000 will be imposed.

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The internal guidelines were released, and the maximum penalty for violations is NT$15,000. Photo/Provided by New Taipei City Government

In addition, after the re-opening of restaurants in New Taipei City, consumers in supermarkets, department stores, markets, and night markets must wear masks once they leave their seats. Any violation will result in a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000. The dining area of the department store food court must be equipped with partitions and should follow alternate seating and provide disinfection equipment and hand-washing areas and service personnel must wear masks and face shields. The markets must also have partitions and alternate seating and no sharing of food and no self -service meals. Finally, it is hoped that the restaurants are prepared with rapid test reagents in case it is needed.