Taipei Travel

To balance between grocery shopping and pandemic prevention, citizens were encouraged to follow the guidelines outlined by “crowd capacity control”, “early closing hours”, “limit trips while maximizing purchases”, and “two trips a week.” Unfortunately, a number of traditional markets saw a large turnout of shoppers during the weekend, which increases the risk of virus spread. 

In light of the continued threat posed by the COVID-19 virus, the city government announced new measures to control crowd flows for public markets, open air markets, supermarket, big box retailers, and other facilities offering daily necessities on June 7.

Under the new guideline of “Odd Numbers – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; Even Numbers – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday,” citizens whose ID card end with 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 can visit markets on Monday (though the majority of traditional markets are closed Mondays), Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Likewise, those whose ID number end in 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0 can do their shopping on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Those without ID cards can use either ARC or passport as substitutes.  

The guideline is implemented on a voluntary basis between Monday and Friday. However, it will be strictly enforced on Saturday and Sunday.

The crowd control measure will be carried out by the respective operators for supermarket and retailers. Likewise, the self-governing associations of public markets will be responsible for access control at their facilities. The police, staff from Market Administration Office, and self-governing associations will implement the measure at open air markets. The market associations and borough chiefs should remind residents to bring their aforementioned IDs in case of spot checks at the market entrance.