No masks on red carpet as Taiwan logs few cases

TAIPEI, Taiwan  — Taiwan wrapped up an annual film festival with an awards ceremony Saturday night as it holds more public events after keeping its coronavirus outbreak to a few hundred cases.

The team of movie “Detention” pose on the red carpet at the 2020 Taipei Film Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, July 11, 2020. The 2020 Taipei Film Festival is the world’s first large-scale film festival held by an entity after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Actors and others lined up for photo shoots with no social distancing, and participants didn’t wear masks in historic Zhongshan Hall in Taipei.

Taiwan, with a population of about 23 million people, has had 451 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

A baseball game in the city of Taichung on Saturday drew more than 10,000 fans for the first time this season, the official Central News Agency said.

Health authorities said last week that fans would be allowed to sit in alternate seats and no longer would have to wear masks, except when leaving their seats.

The horror film “Detention,” set during martial law in Taiwan in the 1960s, was the biggest winner at the Taipei Film Festival, taking six awards including the Grand Prize and Best Actress for 22-year-old Gingle Wang.

Chang Jung-chi, the Best Director winner for “We Are Champions,” said the virus outbreak had forced him to slow down his work. “This comes to me like a friend patting my shoulder and saying, ‘Hang in there,’ ” he said.

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