WASTEFUL: Wu Ping-jui said the KMT proposal would have given even high-income earners a subsidy, which would have affected people who need money the most

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2020
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Lawmakers yesterday passed an amendment to the Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), raising the upper limit of a special budget to bail out industries and people whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic to NT$210 billion (US$7 billion).

The new limit represents a NT$150 billion increase to the budget’s ceiling, NT$60 billion, passed last month by the Legislative Yuan, and the amended act is to serve as the legal basis for a matching budget increase proposed this month by the Executive Yuan for its expanded economic stimulus package.

Depending on the development of the pandemic, a second special budget may be planned, but its amount must not exceed the current one, the amendment says.The planning and spending of the accompanying special budget, for which the Executive Yuan is soon to submit a request, would not be bound by limitations in the Budget Act (預算法), it says, meaning that funds allocated to one agency can be redistributed to another.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 20 April, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

Taiwan confirmed two new imported cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total to 422.

The two new patients were women in their 20s who have studied abroad. One went to Canada for school on January 16 and began experiencing symptoms on April 13. She returned to Taiwan on April 19 and reported her symptoms at the airport. 

The other person confirmed with the virus went to the US for school on January 11. She was in Spain from January 14 to March 15 and began experiencing respiratory symptoms on March 8. She reported her symptoms at the airport when she returned to Taiwan on April 18.    [FULL  STORY]

ORDER FROM CHAOS

Brookings Institute
Date: April 20, 2020
By: Ryan Hass

Editor's Note: 

The coronavirus crisis has exposed a range of fresh challenges and questions about the future of the US-China relationship, writes Ryan Hass. Taiwan's role in this changing environment depends largely on how the people of Taiwan answer a number of looming questions. This piece originally appeared in the Taipei Times.

Unlike virtually every country in the world, Taiwan has weathered the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic admirably well. Taiwan’s governance system has stood firm in the face of crisis, gaining international acclaim for the competence and efficiency of its response to the outbreak. And the people of Taiwan have garnered goodwill through their generosity, reflected in their donations of medical equipment to the United States and elsewhere.

Sadly, others have not fared so well. Both the spread and death toll of the virus already have overwhelmed countries across the world. As the global thinker Fareed Zakaria has observed, we likely are “in the early stages of what is going to become a series of cascading crises.” A health crisis will lead to a global economic recession, which will cause national defaults, which will strain countries’ ability to cope with rising demands for social services, and so on. In other words, the pandemic will change the world as we know it.

In recent weeks, many analysts have stepped forward to offer their views on what the world will look like after COVID-19. For some, this moment would provide a referendum on the relative advantages of democratic versus authoritarian systems. Several warned that China might seize America’s moment of domestic turmoil to eclipse the United States on the world stage, while others suggested that the pandemic would be a permanent stain on China’s international reputation that never would be washed away.

If history is any guide, predictions made about the future from the fog of crisis tend to offer little predictive or explanatory value. I would be surprised if this experience ends up becoming much different.
[FULL  STORY]

Google map reveals 90 spots where sailors confirmed with coronavirus traveled

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/20
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday (April 20) revealed a Google map showing the 90 locations across Taiwan that 24 sailors diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) had traveled to.

Over the weekend, 24 sailors from the "Fleet of Friendship" were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus. Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) on Sunday (April 19) said that the government would send a text message later that day to warn the public about where the sailors had spent over 15 minutes between April 15 and 18, reported CNA. The CECC estimates the sailors traveled to about 90 locations in 10 counties and cities across Taiwan during that period, including Keelung, New Taipei, Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung.

The locations include a broad spectrum of locales and have already resulted in some temporary closures, such as a Carrefour and Costco in Kaohsiung, for disinfection. Places identified include High-Speed Rail (HSR) stations, Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) stations, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations, fitness centers, KTV clubs, hotpot restaurants, malls, cafes, temples, churches, car washes, convenience stores, college campuses, and even a love hotel.

Each entry includes the name of the venue as well as the date and time that a confirmed case visited. Based on the locations identified, the sailors visited virtually every major population center in western Taiwan, while eastern and central Taiwan were spared.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/20/2020
By: Shen Peng-ta and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) A total of 231 Taiwan nationals, originally stranded in China's Hubei province due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, returned to Taiwan late Monday on a special flight and were immediately placed in quarantine.

The evacuees, 193 adults and 38 children, arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 9:20 p.m. on a government-contracted China Airlines (CAL) flight that departed Shanghai's Pudong International Airport around 8 p.m., according to Taiwan's Border Affairs Corps.

Upon arrival in Taiwan, the 231 received a health check at a provisional facility at the airport and were then transported directly to a designated quarantine site, where they will remain for 14 days. It was the first of two special flights contracted by the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) scheduled for this week to bring home Taiwan nationals who were in Hubei province until the lockdown was lifted at the end of March.

The second special flight is scheduled to depart Tuesday night and bring back around 230 Taiwanese.
[FULL  STORY]

MONITORED: The center sent texts to more than 200,000 people who had been to places visited by the infected sailors, urging them to practice self-health management

Taipei Times
Date:  Apr 21, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday listed dozens of locations in 10 cities and counties visited by 24 sailors confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19.

It also announced two new imported cases, both women in their 20s who studied abroad and were tested at an airport after reporting symptoms to quarantine officers upon arriving in Taiwan.

Case No. 421 studied in Canada, developed a cough with phlegm on Monday last week and returned to Taiwan on Sunday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told the center’s daily news conference.

No. 422 studied in the US, visited Spain from Jan. 14 to March 15, developed difficulty breathing, and throat and abdominal pain on March 8, sought treatment after returning to the US, and returned to Taiwan on Saturday, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

NAVAL CLUSTER: The CECC is not going to classify the cases from the ‘Panshih’ as imported or domestic until it completes its investigations into the ship’s outbreak

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Twenty-two new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, with 21 coming from the navy supply ship Panshih (磐石) and one imported case, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.

The navy cases are 19 men and two women, with ages ranging from their 20s to 40s, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said at the center’s news conference in Taipei.

The imported case is a man in his 20s who studies in the US and who developed symptoms on April 10. He returned to Taiwan on Friday, where he reported his condition to an airport quarantine officer and was tested.

The Panshih, the frigate Kang Ding (康定) and guided-missile frigate Yueh Fei (岳飛) made a “Friendship Flotilla” visit to Palau from March 12 to 15 and returned to Kaohsiung on April 9.    [FULL  STORY]

The Mercury News
Date: April 18, 2020
By: Anne Gelhaus

Four years after Cupertino Rotarians came to the aid of their sister organization in Taiwan, the Rotary Club of Kaohsiung West is returning the favor by helping stop the spread of the coronavirus in the South Bay.

In 2016 members of the Rotary Club of Cupertino traveled to Kaohsiung to see the devastation wrought by typhoon Morakot, which hit the rural mountain region of Taiwan in 2009.  The local Rotarians helped build computer network facilities for an elementary school in Kaohsiung County, as well as a large water storage tank to serve residents there.

“Now four years later, it is Cupertino that has an urgent need with the shortage of masks for our first responders and other service providers,” said Orrin Mahoney, past president of Cupertino Rotary. “Thanks to the connection formed years ago, the president elect, Joseph Liao, from the Kaohsiung West Club obtained 4,000 masks and donated them to the Cupertino Rotary Club for local distribution.”

As of April 12, Cupertino Rotary had delivered the protective masks to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Sunnyview Retirement Community in Cupertino, the Cupertino Union School District, Fremont Union High School District and El Camino Hospital.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan has had six deaths out of a total of just 393 confirmed cases

The Mercury News
Date: April 19, 2020
By: Marc A. Thiessen

WASHINGTON — We continue to learn more about the Chinese Communist regime’s lies and culpability in the global coronavirus pandemic. But if you want to see the difference between how a totalitarian and a free Chinese society handles a public health emergency, just contrast the actions of the People’s Republic with those of the Republic of China, Taiwan. One is responsible for unleashing a contagion that has infected more than 2 million people; the other has all but defeated the virus.

Taiwan should have seen the second-largest outbreak of COVID-19 in the world, according to an analysis published in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. The island is just 81 miles off the coast of China, had 2.7 million visitors from the mainland last year and has about 1.25 million citizens who either reside in or work in China. Yet Taiwan has seen only six people die of COVID-19 out of a total of just 393 confirmed cases. Even more amazing, 338 of those cases were individuals infected abroad. In other words, Taiwan has seen just 55 local infections, which means it has effectively eliminated community transmission. Earlier this week, the government reported zero new COVID-19 cases in Taiwan.

What is most impressive is that Taiwan has done all this without ordering its population to shelter in place or shutting down schools, restaurants, stores and other businesses. As a result, Taiwan’s economy is not experiencing the same economic damage as countries under lockdown.

So how did Taiwan succeed where Beijing failed? According to the JAMA study, Taiwan took rapid and specific actions to identify and isolate those who either had the virus or came into contact with those who did.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/19
By:  Associated Press

AMMERSCHWIR, France (AP) — Some were born in this warren of small rooms in what used to be a hospital, dating to the 17th century. Many are likely to die here. And all are currently confined to their rooms, denied the simple comfort of human companionship.

The residents at the Weiss nursing home in eastern France want to chat face to face, to play board games, to share meals. And so each gave a vial of blood to be tested for the coronavirus, as did each staff member — about 580 tests in all. The goal: to identify who must be isolated and who will be allowed the freedom to leave their rooms.

“We spend all our days between those four walls — that’s it, we are not allowed to go out. We don’t even have the right to go out in the hallway,” said Henry Bohn, a 69-year-old who suffered a stroke that has left him in a wheelchair. “They bring us breakfast, lunch and dinner here in the room. Luckily, we have the sun these days and it helps, but we do miss the essential things.”    [FULL  STORY]