TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Foreign workers in Miaoli County will no longer be confined to their dormitories beginning on Tuesday (June 29) as local COVID-19 cases have been brought down to zero.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon (June 28), Miaoli County Magistrate Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) said that a local outbreak of coronavirus cases has been brought under control and that the ban on migrant workers venturing out of their living quarters will be lifted on Tuesday. Instead, foreign workers will be asked to avoid unnecessary trips out, as is the standard recommendation under the nationwide Level 3 restrictions.

Hsu pointed out that at the start of the outbreak, confirmed cases were running into the double digits every day. At the peak of the epidemic on June 11, 56 people in Miaoli County were diagnosed with COVID-19, including 50 migrant workers.

The magistrate explained that when the outbreak was out of control, foreign workers were prohibited from going out "as a last resort." However, now that the number of cases has been brought down to zero, the risk of infection among the migrant worker community has been greatly reduced, said Hsu.

He said that starting on Tuesday, the ban on migrant workers stepping out of their rooms will be lifted and the county will return to standard Level 3 restrictions. Hsu thanked the migrant laborers for their hard work and apologized for the inconvenience caused by not allowing them to go out.

As Miaoli County strives to continue to maintain zero cases, Hsu called on labor brokers, factories, and migrant workers to adhere to various epidemic prevention measures, such as wearing masks at all times when going out, staying indoors as much as possible, and avoiding going to other parts of the county or city.

In response to the outbreak at four high-tech factories in the Zhunan Science Park, the Miaoli County Government announced that effective June 7, all migrant workers were prohibited from venturing out of their residences. The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) on June 9 condemned the lockdown as discriminatory and called for Miaoli to revoke it immediately.

Thus far, there have been a total of 567 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Miaoli County, including 456 migrant workers and 101 Taiwanese citizens.