IMPORTED CASES: Seven of the new cases of infections were people who returned to Taiwan from Egypt, the Philippines, the US and the UK between March 2 and 22

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 31, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday announced eight new cases of COVID-19 infections and three deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 306 and raising the total number of fatalities to five.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said the new infections include seven imported cases and one domestic case.

The imported cases are three women and four men who returned to Taiwan from Egypt, the Philippines, the US and the UK between March 2 and March 22, and involve five clusters of cases.

Case No. 300 is a student at the same school in the UK as two previously confirmed cases; No. 302 is a student at a US school with six previously confirmed cases; and No. 305 had visited relatives in the Philippines and had close contact with a previously confirmed case during the trip, he said.
[FULL  STORY]

India Today's study of the global techniques to enforce quarantines and lockdowns revealed that many of those nations have used the smartphone as a tool to monitor people's movements.

India Today
Date: March 29, 2020
By: Ankit Kumar 

As tens of thousands of migrant workers defied the world's largest lockdown in the country, an India Today analysis has found how a number of other nations have turned to technology to enforce restrictions in addition to physical measures to keep their populations safe from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the United Kingdom, one of the most advanced democracies sensitive about privacy issues, its Information Commissioner's Office has recently approved the use of phone data to monitor people's behaviour as part of efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Singapore, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Israel and several other countries have already mounted tech-based surveillance measures.

India Today's study of the global techniques to enforce quarantines and lockdowns revealed that many of those nations have used the smartphone as a tool to monitor people's movements.
[FULL  STORY]

• With the world bracing for a drawn-out fight against Covid-19, the last thing Hong Kong needs is to be caught again in the crossfire of US-China tensions
• Trump’s signing of a legislation supporting Taiwan’s international standing comes at an odd time, and may further stir the city’s volatile politics

South China Morning Post
Date: 29 Mar, 2020
By: Tammy Tam

“We are at war” is perhaps the most widely used phrase by world leaders these days in the global fight against Covid-19, with no end in sight to the pandemic.

In mainland China, where the coronavirus first emerged, President Xi Jinping had declared a “people’s war” since early February. Now, just as the country is slowly recovering, the pandemic has exploded in Europe and the United States, where Donald Trump has declared himself a “wartime president”.

Whatever that means, Trump has realised this is a fight he cannot afford to lose, for himself if he is to win November’s presidential election, and for the country as it faces a massive public health emergency.

To win a war of such magnitude, world leadership and solidarity are essential, and political bickering is not helpful.    [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date Mar6ch 29, 2020

TAIPEI (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) is closely following the development of the coronavirus in Taiwan and is learning lessons from how they are fighting it, the body said on Sunday, after complaints from Taiwan it was being intentionally ignored.

FILE PHOTO: People go to work wearing protective face masks, amid coronavirus disease (COVID-19) concerns, in Taipei, Taiwan, March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to the objections of China, which claims the democratic and separately-ruled island as its own.

Taiwan’s government has said that keeping it out of the WHO during the outbreak amounts to playing politics with Taiwanese lives. Both the WHO and China say Taiwan has been provided with the help it needs.

Taiwan last week said the WHO ignored its questions at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, part of what it has long described as a pattern that puts it at risk because of Chinese pressure to exclude it from international bodies.

Taiwan has reported 298 cases, far lower than many of its neighbours, and has won plaudits from health experts for its early response and measures to keep the numbers low.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/29
By:  Central News Agency

Individuals who are found throwing their discarded surgical masks on the streets can be fined up to NT$6,000 (US$196), according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW).

The masks, which are commonly used in Taiwan in efforts to protect against the COVID-19 coronavirus, fall under the category of general waste, and should be disposed of in regular garbage bins after being used to prevent the spread of virus, according to the MOHW.

Those who throw away their masks on the street, however, can be subject to fines between NT$1,200 to NT$6,000 under the Waste Disposal Act, the MOHW warned.

Various municipalities in Taiwan have seen an increase in discarded surgical masks on the streets since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as the use of masks have skyrocketed.

In the southern county of Pingtung, for instance, a group of volunteers picked up more than 500 masks left lying around the streets near a hospital within an hour two weeks ago, according to the county's Environmental Protection Bureau.    [FULL STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/29/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, March 29 (CNA) Fifteen new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus were confirmed in Taiwan Sunday, bringing the total number to 298 since the pandemic began, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

All of the new patients — nine males and six females — are Taiwanese, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the CECC.

Of the 15 new cases, 14 were imported, while the other did not have any recent history of overseas travel, Chen said.

The local infection, a women in her 40s, started showing symptoms of fever and rhinitis March 22, after her husband returned from a group tour of Spain and Portugal between March 7-16, the CECC said.    [FULL  STORY]

Daily Mail
Date:  28 March 2020
By: AFP

American journalists expelled by China are welcome to set up shop in Taiwan, foreign minister Joseph Wu said Saturday, as the democratic island burnishes its credentials as a regional free speech haven.

Beijing ordered the expulsion of 13 journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal earlier this month as part of a widening spat over media freedoms with the United States.

The move marked the biggest crackdown on the foreign press in China in recent decades.

It also rattled nerves in Hong Kong because Beijing's order said the expelled reporters would not be allowed to work there, despite the semi-autonomous city supposedly controlling its own immigration decisions.    [FULL  STORY]

Town Hall
Date: Mar 28, 2020
By: Beth Baumann

The World Health Organization (WHO) has come under fire over its handling of the Wuhan coronavirus and, in particular, for spreading Chinese propaganda. WHO has parroted the Chinese regime's various talking points. Back in January, the organization shared a tweet citing Chinese health official's who claimed there was no evidence the virus transmitted through human-to-human contact. We now know that is a blatant lie. 

Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.

Because of China's beef with Taiwan, the WHO has prevented Taiwan from having a seat at the international table since 2016. That is having literal dire consequences. 

Taiwanese health officials alerted WHO about the Wuhan coronavirus' transmission between humans back in December but the organization failed to alert countries around the world.   [FULL  STORY]

Three late payers have been slapped with exit ban

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A couple from Taichung left the country without paying fines of NT$150,000 (US$4,970) each for violating coronavirus quarantine regulations, reports said Saturday (March 28).

When the deadline for paying the fines had passed, the authorities looked up their financial and immigration details and found that they had already left Taiwan, CNA reported.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 13/28/20200
By: William Yen

Taipei, March 28 (CNA) Sixteen new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus were confirmed in Taiwan Saturday, bringing the total to 283 since the pandemic began, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

All of the new patients — nine females and seven males — are Taiwanese, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the CECC.

Of the 16 new cases, 14 were imported, while the other two did not have any recent history of overseas travel, Chen said.

In one of the local infections, the man in his 50s started showing symptoms of coughing, sore throat, headache and fever between Feb. 28 to March 18, before being admitted to hospital March 20 for pneumonia and fever, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]