TAIPEI - Taiwan's Cabinet passed a NT$60 billion (S$2.77 billion) budget on Thursday (Feb 27) for relief measures to cushion the blow of the coronavirus outbreak on businesses, medical personnel and patients.
The fund - half from last year's budget surplus and half national debt - was pooled from 11 government ministries and councils, and is intended to last until June 2021.
The measures, passed by Taiwan's legislature in an 18-article Bill on Wednesday, will give subsidies to those working on the front line of outbreak prevention, including medical personnel, and provide additional compensation should their work result in illnesses or death.
"Premier Su Tseng-chang has asked the responsible departments to finish making the sub-laws, and for the money to be spent wisely," said Executive Yuan spokesman Kolas Yotaka on Thursday.
People asked by the health authorities to be quarantined (at home or in hospital isolation wards) can apply for compensation within a two-year window of their quarantine, as well as those who have to stay home from work to care for quarantined relatives. "The budget for subsidies and compensation is NT$1.82 billion, which is included in the NT$19.6 billion 'outbreak prevention measures' budget," said Ms Yokata.
The fund will also help local hospitals cover the costs of building new isolation wards and stock up on necessary supplies. Additionally, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will be using NT$90 million to build 30 new mask production lines to meet the public's demand for surgical masks, said the Premier during the Cabinet's meeting.
Since the coronavirus outbreaks began, discrimination against confirmed cases and their family members has been widely reported in many countries.
A Taiwanese woman working in the finance industry complained that her direct supervisor ordered her to quarantine herself for two weeks because she had cold symptoms, and spread rumours in the office that she might be a confirmed case.
"He kept telling me to get screened for coronavirus and even called the hospital to see if I went to get screened," said Ms Chen, 30, who asked to be identified by her surname only. And when she finally received her negative screen results and went back to work, Ms Chen's supervisor demanded that she stay at least 2m away from him at all times, and refused to sit next to her during meetings.
To prevent similar situations, the Act rules that confirmed and suspected cases will be exempt from being marked absent by their employers or be subjected to any kind of virus-related discrimination.
Compensation aside, the bulk of the budget -NT$40.4 billion - will go to economic bailouts and revitalisation, mainly helping businesses that were hit hard by the outbreak because of the decline in foreign visitors.
The Tourism Bureau kicked off its bailout plans on Thursday, taking applications for compensation from travel agencies and individuals whose travels to China and other countries were cut short or cancelled because of the coronavirus.
