Coronavirus: Taiwanese workers call time on mainland China over Covid-19 fears

An extended Lunar New Year holiday provides people from the self-ruled island with the opportunity to rethink their careers as the death toll from the deadly infection continues to rise

Online poll finds 63 per cent of Taiwanese unwilling to return to mainland China over health concerns

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Many Taiwanese are opting not to return to their jobs in mainland China because of the coronavirus epidemic. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:15pm, 23 Feb 2020Updated: 11:32pm, 23 Feb 2020

Taiwanese account manager Douglas Liu values his life more than his job, which is why he will be staying at home on Monday rather than going back to work in the mainland China city of Suzhou.

Liu returned to his home in Taipei on January 10 for an extended Lunar New Year holiday – and to vote in the island’s presidential election – and planned to go back to work on February 1. But as the coronavirus epidemic worsened, the 45-year-old changed his plans.

“Last week, my company told me I should resume work on February 24, but after I argued in vain over the risk of returning to Suzhou, I tendered my resignation,” he said. “After all, my life is more important.”

Liu works for a firm that manufactures chest freezers for the mainland Chinese market.

“With more than 80 coronavirus infections in Suzhou and little sign of it subsiding, who knows what could happen to me if I return,” he said.

More than 78,700 people have contracted the virus since it was first detected in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, at the end of last year, and close to 2,500 have lost their lives to it.