COVID-19 TOLL: The CECC reported zero new infections for the fourth straight day, but confirmed one death, a man in his 40s who had been hospitalized since March

Taipei Times
Date: May 12, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

As the spread of COVID-19 appears to be slowing in Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is considering easing restrictions over indoor activities, such as allowing gatherings of up to 250 people, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said yesterday.

Such an easing would allow wedding banquets with 30 tables, with eight people per table, and each table 1.5m apart, he said.

The center is discussing with information security departments how to protect personal data if diners are required to register their names when visiting restaurants, he said.

It is also considering issuing a safety mark for restaurants that follow the center’s recommended disease prevention guidelines, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Global News
Date: May 10, 2020
By: Amanda Connolly, Global News

Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole says while he would not walk away from longstanding policies acknowledging Chinese claims over Hong Kong and Taiwan, he would modify them.

In an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, O’Toole was asked whether he would take a more forceful stand recognizing Hong Kong and Taiwan if he were to win the leadership race and be elected as prime minister.

He said the current approaches are not working.

“I would put caveats on the One China policy,” he said, adding that “the one country, two systems agreement for Hong Kong has not been fulfilled.”

O’Toole, who has long been vocal in calling for the government to take a more critical stance on China, has amplified those calls in recent months as Beijing has faced growing criticism for covering up early reports of the spread of the coronavirus in its country.

Scientists believe it jumped from animals to humans in late December at a wet market in the city of Wuhan, although American intelligence reports suggest early spread may have begun as early as the fall and been muzzled by Chinese officials.    [FULL  STORY]

• Loud calls on social media urge Beijing to strike while world is busy with coronavirus crisis, but observers say the authorities do not want to be rushed
• A recent article in an influential Communist Party journal drew on parallels with the 17th century conquest of the island to highlight need for patience

South China Morning Post
Date: 10 May, 2020
By: Minnie Chan

Beijing is trying to calm rising nationalist sentiment after a growing chorus of voices called for China to take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic by invading Taiwan.

A number of commentators on social media have called for the island to be reunified by force – something Beijing has never ruled out – but some analysts believe the authorities want to play a longer game and are now trying to cool the “nationalist fever”.

An article published earlier in the month in the magazine of the Central Party School, which trains senior officials, drew historical parallels with the Qing dynasty’s conquest of the island in the 17th century to highlight the importance of patience and careful planning.

The Qing, who came from Manchuria, seized power in Beijing and northern China in 1644 and gradually consolidated their control over the Chinese mainland in the following decades.
[FULL  STORY]

Even global medical experts have habit of touching faces, making mask-wearing necessary: Taiwan CECC

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/10
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As Taiwan's pandemic situation has become more stable, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Saturday (May 9) that mask-wearing has played a key factor in the island nation's success in containing the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Following Health Minister and CECC head Chen Shih-chung's (陳時中) announcement that there were no new COVID-19 patients on Saturday, CECC Advisory Specialist Panel Convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) urged the Taiwanese public to continue wearing face masks on public transportation and in crowded places. He said Taiwan has demonstrated its extraordinary ability to respond to the global health crisis and could hopefully extend its 27-day streak of having no local transmissions if the public remained respectful of government policies.

Chang compared the current situation to the H1N1 outbreak in 2009 and said the two shared many similarities. He said the government adopted similar strategies for both outbreaks, shifting its goal from containment to disaster mitigation once the patients reached a certain number.

To further illustrate his point on the importance of mask-wearing, Chang shared a photo taken at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2009 and pointed out that several international health experts placed their hands on their faces during the meeting. He stressed that many people had the habit of touching their noses and mouths, which are the main entryways for viruses to enter the body.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/10/2020
By: Yu Hsiao-han and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 10 (CNA) Nantou County in central Taiwan on Sunday recorded its hottest day of the year, so far, as the mercury rose to 40 degrees Celsius, which was also a nationwide high, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

The daytime high of 40 degrees was recorded at 1:30 p.m. at a highway rest stop called the Nantou Service Area, according to the CWB.

Elsewhere in Taiwan, the temperature rose to 38.2 degrees in Yuemei Village in Kaohsiung and in Beiliao Village in Tainan on Sunday, the CWB said.

Early Sunday afternoon, the CWB issued an "orange" heat alert for Kaohsiung and Nantou, warning that temperatures there were expected to reach 38 degrees during the day.

It also issued a "yellow" heat warning for areas near mountains and river valleys in Tainan, Pingtung, Chiayi, Miaoli, Taichung, Yunlin, Hualien and Changhua, saying daytime temperatures were expected to rise to 36 degrees later in the afternoon.    [FULL  STORY]

PREVENTION LIFESTYLE: Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung dedicated the good news to mothers, but once again warned the public against complacency

Taipei Times
Date: May 11, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

No new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday, marking the 28th day with no domestic cases reported in the nation, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.

“Today is also Mother’s Day, so we would like to present our record of no domestic cases having been reported in 28 consecutive days as a gift for all mothers, hoping that everyone can feel safer,” said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

However, people should not let their guard down and should thoroughly practice the “new disease prevention lifestyle” to achieve an even higher level of safety, he said.

“Our successful disease prevention performance against COVID-19 is attributed to the efforts of everyone living in Taiwan, as well as cooperation among the central and local governments,” he added.    [FULL  STORY]

Chen Chien-jen has embraced a rare dual role, using his political authority as vice president to criticize China’s response to the virus even as he hunkers down to analyze trends in transmission.

The New York Times
Date: May 9, 2020
By: Javier C. Hernández and Chris Horton

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The calls come at night, when Taiwan’s vice president, Chen Chien-jen, is usually at home in his pajamas. Scientists seek his advice on the development of antiviral medications. Health officials ask for guidance as they investigate an outbreak of the coronavirus on a navy ship.

Like many world leaders, Mr. Chen is fighting to keep the coronavirus at bay and to predict the course of the pandemic. He is tracking infections, pushing for vaccines and testing kits, and reminding the public to wash their hands.

But unlike most officials, Mr. Chen has spent his career preparing for this moment — he is a Johns Hopkins-trained epidemiologist and an expert in viruses.

That experience has thrust Mr. Chen from behind the scenes to the forefront of Taiwan’s response to the crisis. He has embraced his rare dual role, using his political authority to criticize China for initially trying to conceal the virus even as the scientist in him hunkers down to analyze trends in transmission.    [FULL  STORY]

As recognition of our mistakes, as correction for past errors, and in gratitude for showing the world the best way on how to handle such a pandemic, the United States should now, at long last, formally acknowledge Taiwanese reality: the United States should unilaterally recognise Taiwan as in independent country.

The National Interest
May 9, 2020
By: Azeem Ibrahim

All too often in politics, perception is reality. But when politicians themselves start believing that all political reality is just perception we always end up in trouble. Such was the case in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, when first the local authorities in Hubei province, and then the national government in Beijing, treated the emergence of the disease as a public relations issue rather than a health issue.

 

The first country in the world to face the facts around the virus and went on to implement one of the most effective responses to the virus was Taiwan. Taiwan registered the first case on January 21, one of the first countries to do so outside of China—at a time when most countries had not even registered the virus as a potential threat on their political horizons. Over three months later, and in a medium-sized country of nearly 24 million people, Taiwan has only registered 429 infections and 6 deaths (at the time of writing).

How did Taiwan achieve such an astonishing success? The country had at least two things going for it. The first is that it has had the experience of Sars two decades ago, so like South Korea and Japan had the knowhow and the infrastructure to cope well with an epidemic of this kind. The second advantage is political: led by a pro-independence government which has come under sustained pressure from Beijing in recent years, Taiwan knows to instinctively distrust narratives coming out of Beijing.

It also has some one million citizens working on the mainland, giving the Taiwanese government some useful channels of communication with people and with the realities of inland China. So when the initial reports from doctors in Hubei province emerged about a potential new viral respiratory disease, Taiwan was one of the first countries to know about it. As it has since emerged, it has also tried to pass on what it has learned, as well as the fact that the Chinese authorities were deliberately withholding relevant information and suppressing the doctors’ reports, to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as early as December.
[FULL  STORY]

More than 2 million arrivals in Jan. 2020, down to 200,000 in March

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/09
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic tightened its grip on the world, the number of arrivals and departures in Taiwan fell by more than 3 million during the first quarter of 2020 from the same period last year, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) said Saturday (May 9).

Figures for the month of March were even more dramatic, and close to data recorded during the height of the SARS epidemic in early 2003, CNA reported.

From January to March this year, 3,615,349 people arrived in Taiwan, while 3,552,631 took a flight out of the country. Those amounts stood at about half the level of the figures for the same period in 2019, when 7,043,653 arrivals and 7,152,826 departures were recorded.

For the month of Jan. 2020, both arrivals and departures were still rising compared to Jan. 2019 to 2.2 million and 2.3 million respectively, but during the month of February those figures fell by half, according to MOI data.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/09/2020
By Wu Hsin-yun and Kay Liu

Taipei, May 9 (CNA) Scores of volunteers from LGBT groups in Taiwan embarked on a signature campaign Saturday to petition the government on laws that restrict same-sex marriage between couples from different countries, under certain circumstances.

The initial goal is to obtain 10,000 signatures on the petition, which asks government to remove the restrictions so that all same-sex couples would have the right to get married in Taiwan, said one the groups, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR).

To that end, more than 100 volunteers from LGBT groups in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Chiayi, Kaohsiung and Hualien have launched a signature campaign, and the petition will be presented to the government on May 17, the first anniversary of the country's legislation of same-sex marriage, the TAPCPR said.

The petition stems from the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements that in effect excludes couples that are from countries where gay marriage is prohibited, and also in cases where one partner is from such a country.    [FULL  STORY]