Netizens urge S’pore to follow Taiwan’s example and make wearing masks on public transport compulsory

Taiwan – Beginning Wednesday (April 1), everyone taking public transport in Taiwan is mandated to wear face masks, and members of the public are urging Singapore to follow suit as the number of confirmed cases in the island-nation reached 1,000 on the same day. According to a taiwannews.com report, travellers taking Taiwan’s trains and inter-city buses must wear masks and comply with temperature checks at train stations, airports, post offices and other areas as an added safety precaution for the Qingming holiday happening on April 2 to 6. City buses and the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system will be implementing the same protocol in the days to follow. Taiwan currently has 329 Covid-19 cases and five reported deaths. Meanwhile, members of the online community are urging Singapore to impose the same measures and make the wearing of face masks in public transport compulsory. [caption id="attachment_193248" align="aligncenter" width="478"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] [caption id="attachment_193249" align="aligncenter" width="499"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] “There’s a reason why Taiwan has a much higher population than us yet a lower number of cases. Sometimes a peasant can think much better than paper scholars,” said John Chen. [caption id="attachment_193254" align="aligncenter" width="443"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] “This is one key strategy missing out in our fight against the virus, which may have resulted in so many unlinked cases,” commented Stephan Lau and urged everyone to do their parts and wear masks, even if it’s a homemade one. “Having something on is better than nothing. Don’t need to wait for top-down instructions,” he added. [caption id="attachment_193253" align="aligncenter" width="493"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] [caption id="attachment_193250" align="aligncenter" width="479"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] Dennis Chen did the computation based on other news and concluded that Taiwan is able to sell their face masks at $0.25 apiece and it took them US$ 6.66M (S$9.57M) to increase production from four million to 13 million in 25 days. “This is peanuts compared to the recent S$48B supplementary budget,” he noted. [caption id="attachment_193252" align="aligncenter" width="461"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] Others agreed that the only way to protect oneself in public is to wear a mask, “since it’s impossible to do physical distancing in public transport (as schools and malls are still open).” [caption id="attachment_193251" align="aligncenter" width="448"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] [caption id="attachment_193250" align="aligncenter" width="439"] Photo: FB screengrab[/caption] Read related: http://theindependent.sg/covid-19-new-rationale-as-to-why-we-should-all-wear-masks-ho-ching-advocates-for-these/