Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/13/2020
By: Tang Pei-chun, Tai Ya-chen and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) With the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) five days away, 14 of Taiwan's diplomatic allies have put forth a proposal for the issue of Taiwan's exclusion to be put on the agenda.

The request was made in letters sent separately to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus by the governments of all of Taiwan's allies, with the exception of the Vatican.

The Vatican is not a member state of the WHO, but participates as an observer in the organization's decision-making body, the WHA.

In their letters, the 14 governments said it was important that no one be left out of the global health network, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.    [FULL  STORY]

SAFEGUARDING HOMES: Medical staff engaged in epidemic prevention work who choose to stay at quarantine hotels would be eligible for a subsidy

Taipei Times
Date: May 14, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday reported no new COVID-19 cases, marking the sixth consecutive day without a confirmed case and the 31st without a domestic infection.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that it was also the third time that Taiwan has achieved “zero cases for six consecutive days,” adding that he has confidence in the public’s diligent disease prevention efforts.

Among the nation’s 440 confirmed cases, 375 patients have recovered and been removed from isolation, he said.

While many people have asked whether hostess clubs and dance halls are to be allowed to resume operations, the center’s guidelines for the adoption of a “new disease prevention lifestyle” are not aimed at specific industries, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]

National Review
Date: May 12, 2020
By: Zachary Evans

China has been increasing military pressure on Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a board made up of congressional Republicans and Democrats, warned in a report that China is engaging in aggressive military maneuvers directed towards Taiwan, Foreign Policy reported Tuesday. Chinese planes have been buzzing the median line of the Taiwan Strait separating the two countries, as well as circling the borders of Taiwan, over the course of the outbreak.

At the same time, China’s has continued to expand its presence in the South China Sea, the world’s busiest maritime trade route. The U.S. has conducted freedom of navigation operations in the area in April, with Defense Secretary Mark Esper telling reporters, “to send a clear message to Beijing that [the United States] will continue to protect freedom of navigation and commerce.”

While Taiwan considers itself an independent country, China claims the island nation as an extension of its territory, and bars international agencies including the World Health Organization from accepting Taiwan as a member state. On Monday the WHO announced it could not invite Taiwan to the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly because of “divergent views among member states.”

The congressional board’s report concluded that Taiwanese inclusion in the WHO could have significantly helped nations mitigate the spread of coronavirus.    [FULL  STORY]

Many suspected cases among international athletes months before China's first reports to WHO

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The world is beginning to reexamine when COVID-19 first broke out, after a French athlete broke the news that she suspected she contracted the novel coronavirus while participating in an athletic event in Wuhan, China in Oct. 2019 — two months earlier than when China first acknowledged confirmed cases to the WHO, CNA reported on Monday (May 11).

According a report by Radio Free Asia (RFA), French pentathlon world champion Elodie Clouvel recently told local media that when she and her boyfriend Valentin Belaud participated in the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan in last October, many French athletes, including herself, fell ill. At the time they all assumed it to be the flu, but some of them were quite sick, she added.

She went on to say that she recently visited a military doctor, who told her that she may have had coronavirus, as very many on the French team were ill at the same time, according to CNA.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/12/2020
By: Matt Yu, Lai Yen-hsi and Emerson Lim

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) Taiwan said Tuesday that contingency plans are in place for its outlying islands in the South China Sea, following a Japanese media report that the Chinese military is planning to conduct drills in the area to simulate the seizure of one of the islands.

Japan's Kyodo News reported that day that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is planning to hold a large-scale beach landing exercise near China's Hainan Province in August, with a scenario of capturing the Dongsha Islands (Pratas Islands), currently controlled by Taiwan.

The report, which did not cite its sources, said the Dongsha Islands are significant to Beijing as they sit at a strategic point, because Chinese warships have to sail by them when going to the Pacific from Hainan Province.

Responding to this, Maj. Gen. Lin Wen-huang (林文皇), who heads an operations and planning office at the Ministry of National Defense (MND), said at a press conference that the ministry is monitoring movements of "hostile forces" through intelligence gathering and surveillance.
[FULL  STORY]

MILESTONE: The minister of health urged the public to keep practicing disease prevention measures, while thanking the nation’s nurses for keeping Taiwan safe

Taipei Times
Date: May 13, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Yesterday marked the 30th day with no new local cases of COVID-19 infection in Taiwan, while

372 people have been removed from isolation after recovering, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

“Our local communities are generally safe, as no domestic cases have been reported in 30 days,” Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said at a daily news conference in Taipei.

However, people should continue to follow personal protective measures, including wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, observing cough etiquette, washing their hands frequently and staying at home if they feel ill, Chen said.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, expresses his appreciation to local medical workers on International Nurses’ Day yesterday at a news conference in Taipei.

Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center

Clear dividers were for the first time placed on the desk where CECC officials sit during the daily news conference, allowing them to take off their masks, prompting Chen to joke that he has not shown his face in public for a long time.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 11 May, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

How do you celebrate an inauguration during a pandemic? Taiwan is about to find out. President Tsai Ing-wen’s is scheduled for May 20. But proceedings have been streamlined to put a priority on the health of participants.

Wet-wipes, hand cream, and a bar of Taiwan-shaped soap… these are not the typical inauguration gifts in Taiwan. But for guests at this year’s ceremony, it’s the perfect reminder of the country’s number one priority in the time of coronavirus: disease prevention. 

Another change you’ll see this year: a more streamlined inauguration. In lieu of the lavish events and large crowds of the past, the presidential office is going for a more intimate setting, only inviting 200 people to attend. Even the customary inaugural banquet has been cancelled.

On the morning of May 20, President Tsai will be sworn in at the presidential office. She will then move across the street to the Taipei Guest House where she will give an address. 
[FULL  STORY]

Fox News
Date: May 11, 2020
By Barnini Chakraborty, Louis Casiano

Did China pressure the WHO to delay global coronavirus warning?

Insight from Gordon Chang, author of 'The Coming Collapse of China.'

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox.  Sign up here.

Citing the global fight against coronavirus, a group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers on Friday wrote to nearly 60 countries on behalf of Taiwan, asking them to support the country's inclusion in the World Health Organization.

The letter was signed by Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the ranking Republican member, as well as Sens. Jim Risch, R-ID, the Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the committee's ranking Democratic member.    [FULL  STORY]

Party in Taroko National Park attracts attention of authorities after Facebook photos surface

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A bed and breakfast (B&B) operator and more than 10 of his guests are facing fines for water pollution after their party photos at the closed Wenshan hot spring in Taroko National Park were posted to Facebook Monday (May 11), CNA reported.

The photos show more than 10 young men and women venturing into the Wenshen hot spring at night, washing their heads in the river, pouring water from a beer can, and lying inside a tunnel of the Central Cross-Island Highway. The boys wore swimming shorts, the girls bikinis.

The post attracted a lot of criticism from Facebook users who blamed the revelers for spoiling the natural ecology.

The B&B operator, surnamed Wang (王), defended the behavior of his guests in a telephone interview with CNA, saying that the beer can in the photo contained water, not beer. He added that it's a shame that the wonderful hidden destination in Hualien is closed and insisted that they were doing what visitors should do in order to have a nice trip.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/11/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, May 11 (CNA) Treatments that combine the use of Western and Chinese medicine have shown promising preliminary results in COVID-19 patients in Taiwan, the National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine (NRICM) said Monday.

Of the 14 COVID-19 patients the NRICM has helped treat, 12 were discharged from the hospital within 8-10 days of when the drugs were first given to patients, and they have not shown side affects from the medications so far, NRICM Director Su Yi-Chang (蘇奕彰) told CNA in an interview.

The other two patients were only confirmed with the disease recently, Su said, so they are still undergoing treatment.

Though the mix seems promising, Su did not disclose the specific medications used and said they would only be revealed by the research team when they are included in the Central Epidemic Command Center's (CECC) treatment guidelines.    [FULL  STORY]