Eye On Taiwan

Overseeing quarantine a 24-hour job for district clerks Posted: 30 Mar 2020 07:00 PM PDT Radio Taiwan International Date: 30 March, 2020 By: Leslie Liao Keeping tabs on quarantined individuals is a 24-hour job for local clerks Taiwan has kept a tight watch on people under quarantine in order to halt the spread of COVID-19. On the frontlines are local office clerks who check up on the people in quarantine every day. They also deliver supplies, answer questions, and handle complaints. And what’s more, they’re on-call 24 hours a day. A district office clerk in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, checks up on a resident who’s under quarantine. Sometimes she turns on the video function to make sure they are actually in their home. Every day, this clerk has to check up on over 70 people in quarantine. And her work isn’t limited to just making phone calls. Some days, she has to hop on her scooter and deliver food and medical supplies. She does her rounds and delivers the goods, carrying half-a-dozen bags over her shoulders.    [FULL  STORY]

China Rejected Taiwanese Medical Gear Donation at Peak of Its Coronavirus Epidemic Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:55 PM PDT Breitbart Date: 30 Mar 2020 By: Frances Martel HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images The government of Taiwan revealed on Monday that the democratic country had attempted to donate 10,000 protective medical suits to the Communist Party of China in February, as Wuhan coronavirus cases were rising exponentially in the country, but Beijing refused them. The Communist Party rejects Taiwan’s status as a sovereign state, insisting it is a province of China. Taiwan operates full independently of Beijing and has never been ruled from Beijing in its history. As China is an extremely wealthy and influential dictatorship, however, it has successfully limited Taiwan’s diplomatic ties to other states and international organizations. Taiwan maintains diplomatic ties with only 15 states and cannot participate in the United Nations or, currently more pressingly, the World Health Organization (WHO), due to Communist Party bullying. Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong confirmed reports on Monday that, despite the tense relationship between Taipei and Beijing, the Taiwanese government attempted to send 10,000 sets of protective medical suits to China to protect health workers caring for patients infected with the highly contagious virus. The suits would have reportedly gone to Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan, where the virus originated. Taiwan News reports that Hubei declined the offer, citing Chen saying that the Communist Party officials claimed “the lead time is too short to deal with.” Focus Taiwan, another local media outlet, blamed China’s Eastern Airlines for rejecting the suits. Eastern Airlines flew 247 Taiwanese citizens home out of Wuhan in early February. Upon landing in Taipei, the Taiwanese government reportedly said it wanted to fill the plane with protective gear before it flew back. Eastern Airlines declined. The airline is majority-owned by the Communist Party. Focus Taiwan notes that the Eastern Airlines rejection came after the rejection from Hubei itself. [FULL  STORY]

Over 70% favor removing ‘China’ from Taiwan passport Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:50 PM PDT 74% of Taiwanese favor removing 'Republic of China' from passport Taiwan News Date: 2020/03/30 By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer Taiwan passport stickers.  (Wikimedia Commons photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over 70 percent of Taiwanese support changing the English name on Taiwan's passports to avoid confusion with communist China, according to the results of a survey run by the New Power Party (NPP). On Sunday (March 29), the NPP announced that 74.3 percent of survey respondents supported removing the "Republic of China" from the English name on the country's passport and replacing it with "Taiwan" to avoid being confused with communist China. According to the survey, 51.2 percent strongly supported the suggestion, 23.1 percent were supportive, 10.8 percent disagreed, and 6.4 percent strongly disagreed, while 8.5 percent expressed no clear opinion. As for the party affiliations of survey respondents, 90 percent of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members and Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) members supported the name change. Meanwhile, 75 percent of Taiwan People's Party (TPP) members and 52 percent of Kuomintang (KMT) members were in favor of the measure. The survey was conducted from March 23 to March 24 via telephone and gathered 1,085 valid samples. The survey had a confidence level of 95 percent with a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Taiwan textile makers respond to need for protective gear amid COVID-19 Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:47 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 03/30/2020 By: Listen Taipei, March 30 (CNA) Several companies in Taiwan's textile sector have been modifying their production lines and ramping up output to help meet the soaring demand for surgical masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Among the companies that have stepped up to the challenge is a "national team" of six manufacturers, which are producing protective hospital gowns that have P3 particulate filters. Leading the team is Makalot Industrial, a top Taiwanese manufacturer that normally supplies textiles to global clothing brands but has moved quickly into the production of special protective gowns for people on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. Makalot Industrial Chairman Chou Li-ping (周理平) said the company had the advantage of research and development conducted 17 years ago when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic hit Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Tsai: Taiwan joining WHO would benefit all Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:33 PM PDT Radio Taiwan International Date: 30 March, 2020 By: Natalie Tso President Tsai (right) was speaking to reporters during a visit to Mytrex Health Technologies on Monday. (CNA photo) President Tsai Ing-wen says she believes Taiwan joining the World Health Organization (WHO) would not only benefit Taiwan, it would also benefit the whole world. She was responding to a question on Monday about a recent statement from the WHO regarding Taiwan. The WHO said that it was up to WHO members, not the organization’s officials, to decide whether Taiwan could join the WHO. That statement followed criticism of WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward, who evaded a question about Taiwan’s membership during an interview with Radio Television Hong Kong journalist Yvonne Tong. President Tsai said, “We hope that after this epidemic, other countries can have a better understanding of Taiwan’s abilities and what it can contribute and really consider allowing Taiwan to become part of the global epidemic prevention system. This would help ensure the health of the Taiwan people, and the world’s medical care systems would also be better off with Taiwan’s participation.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Hits Back at WHO Over Collaboration Claims in Virus Fight Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:07 PM PDT Bloomberg Date: Mar 30, 2020 By: Samson Ellis, Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) — Taiwan rejected the World Health Organization’s claims it has worked with the island in combating the global coronavirus outbreak, adding fresh criticism of the organization’s handling of the epidemic. Taiwan’s foreign ministry accused the WHO of being less than entirely truthful about its interaction with the island in a statement Monday, saying its information sharing with the Geveva-based organization was one-sided and hampered by political sensitivities. “Between 2009 and 2019, we have applied to the WHO to take part in 187 technical meetings but have only been invited to 57 of them,” the ministry said. “This shows that the WHO secretariat places restrictions on Taiwan out of political considerations.” In a statement over the weekend, the WHO said it was working with Taiwan in epidemiology training and information sharing. The WHO statement came after weeks of escalating criticism of the organization’s treatment of Taiwan as overly deferential to China, culminating in an interview widely shared online in which a senior WHO official appeared to hang up on a reporter when she asked about Taiwan.   [FULL  STORY]

Traffic accidents claimed eight lives a day last year Posted: 30 Mar 2020 03:08 PM PDT COMMUNITY REACH: The number of fatalities fell from a year earlier, but the percentage of young and elderly victims rose, prompting measures to raise awareness Taipei Times Date: Mar 31, 2020 By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter An average of eight people died every day last year in traffic accidents, Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics showed yesterday. The ministry unveiled the figures at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, where ministry officials were scheduled to brief lawmakers about the nation’s progress in keeping its roads safe for all users. Although the number of people killed in traffic accidents fell from 3,219 in 2012 to 2,865 last year, the figure still came to an average of eight fatalities per day, the ministry said. The number of elderly and young people killed in traffic accidents has been increasing, it said. [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s 2 new coronavirus deaths were female diabetic, male traveler Posted: 30 Mar 2020 02:39 PM PDT Man who had traveled to Spain, woman with chronic conditions 2 latest Wuhan coronavirus deaths Taiwan News Date: 2020/03/30 By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer (CNA photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A female diabetic and a male traveler to Spain were announced on Monday (March 30) as Taiwan's latest deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. During its daily press conference on Monday (March 30), the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that a woman in her 50s and a man in his 60s were the latest fatalities caused by COVID-19. The woman is believed to be part of a cluster infection of nine in a hospital, while the man had recently traveled to Spain. The woman had a history of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases. On Feb. 14, she was hospitalized and treated for hypoglycemia and general fatigue, but she had not yet developed any respiratory symptoms at the time.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan, Australia to exchange raw materials to fight COVID-19 Posted: 30 Mar 2020 02:33 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date:\ 03/30/2020 By: Wu Po-wei and Joseph Yeh Image taken from Pixabay for illustrative purposes only Taipei, March 30 (CNA) Taiwan and Australia have agreed to exchange raw materials in the near future to help each other fight the new coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOFA) announced Monday. In a Facebook post, the MOEA said Australia has agreed to provide 1 million liters of edible alcohol to be turned into 4.22 million 300 milliliter bottles of 75 percent-alcohol hand sanitizer. In return, Taiwan will provide 3 metric tons of non-woven fabric to Australia, the key raw material used in surgical masks, when its production capacity has stabilized, the MOEA said. The MOEA did not say when this exchange of materials will take place. According to the ministry, Taiwan relies heavily on imported alcohol, with around 90 percent of its total alcohol supply coming from Australia. Taiwan currently has a sufficient alcohol supply, the MOEA said, and its two main alcohol-based hand sanitizer suppliers, Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. and Taiwan Sugar Corp., have daily outputs of 200,000 300 ml bottles and 20,000 300 ml bottles of alcohol-based hand sanitizer, respectively.    [FULL  STORY]

Traffic accidents claimed eight lives a day last year Posted: 30 Mar 2020 02:13 PM PDT COMMUNITY REACH: The number of fatalities fell from a year earlier, but the percentage of young and elderly victims rose, prompting measures to raise awareness Taipei Times Date: Mar 31, 2020 By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter An average of eight people died every day last year in traffic accidents, Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics showed yesterday. The ministry unveiled the figures at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, where ministry officials were scheduled to brief lawmakers about the nation’s progress in keeping its roads safe for all users. Although the number of people killed in traffic accidents fell from 3,219 in 2012 to 2,865 last year, the figure still came to an average of eight fatalities per day, the ministry said. The number of elderly and young people killed in traffic accidents has been increasing, it said. Last year, 457,382 people were killed or injured in traffic accidents, which resulted in estimated social cost of more than NT$500 billion (US$16.5 billion), the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]