Radio Taiwan International
Date: 23 March, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan has risen once again, driven up mostly by newly reported cases brought in from overseas.

Taiwan has recorded 26 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases Taiwan has confirmed since the start of the outbreak up to 195.

All but one of the new cases are imported, brought in by people with a recent history of travel to the US or Europe.

Just don't let your battery die or you'll have to explain it to the police

The Register
Date:= 24 Mar 2020
By: Thomas Claburn in San Francisco 

Taiwan, in an effort to limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, has implemented a geo-fence using people's mobile phones.

This technology alerts authorities when quarantined individuals leave their designated shelter locations or turn off their mobile devices.

According to Reuters, Taiwan appears to be the first country to use mobile location data as a quarantine compliance mechanism.

That may or may not be the case. Singapore has implemented a system whereby quarantined individuals are required to stay home and to click on links in SMS messages from health authorities that report their cellphones' location, thus confirming they are indeed at home.   [FULL  STORY]

Audio toys with content that undermines Taiwan's sovereignty currently circulating

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/23
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Legislator of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) has called on the government to ban children’s toys containing Chinese propaganda messages.

“The biggest island in China is called Taiwan”; “October 1 is the National Day celebrated with songs and dances”; and “July 1 is the birthday of the [communist] party, and the whole nation beams with joy” are some of the messages repeatedly broadcast by a plastic toy in the form of a cute, white rabbit dressed in red.

The DPP legislator held a press conference on Monday (March 23) with Kaohsiung City Councilor Lin Chih-hung (林智鴻) in Taipei. The Ministry of Economic Affairs had approved the toy’s import without taking its audio content into consideration, said Chao, adding that it has been circulating in physical and online retailers in Taiwan for a long time, with a price tag of NT$160 (US$5).

The toy, called “Xin Xin Rabbit story machine," is one of 450,000 toys which circulate in the Taiwanese market every year, according to Chao. He added that these audio toys often contain Chinese terms and idioms that are not commonly used in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/23/2020
By: Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, March 23 (CNA) A Chinese medical expert has predicted that the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that has spread rapidly around the world will not disappear anytime soon and could last off and on for one or two years.

Initially, the global outbreak of COVID-19 should peak in April and last until between May and June, predicted Zhang Wenhong (張文宏), head of Shanghai's COVID-19 clinical expert team, during a recent video conference held by the Chinese consulate in Düsseldorf, Germany.

After retreating during the summer, the outbreak could reappear next winter and peak again in the spring of 2021, he suggested.

"It's possible that the virus comes and goes and lasts for one or two years," he said.
[FULL  STORY]

MORE CASES EXPECTED: Many young Taiwanese would be returning home over the next two weeks, as schools in many nations closed, the health minister said

Taipei Times
Date:  Mar 24, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Twenty-six new COVID-19 cases were confirmed yesterday, including five clusters, and all but one were imported, bringing Taiwan’s total number to 195, as border controls and home quarantine measures prove their effectiveness, the head of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

Twelve of the new cases were in people tested at airports upon their return, 11 were in people under home quarantine and two were people who tested positive after seeking medical treatment, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said at its daily news conference.

“The new domestic case is a woman who lives with a Germen researcher at a national research institute who was one of three cases confirmed from the same institute on Sunday, he said.The daily numbers of imported cases have continued to increase since mid-March, and the growth curve is expected to be maintained over the next two weeks,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 22 March, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Fears about COVID-19 and the closure of Taiwan's borders to foreign visitors have left popular tourist sites deserted. Pictured here is Taipei 101 on Sunday.

Taiwanese health officials announced 16 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday. The newest cases bring the total number Taiwan has reported since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak up to 169.

Only three of the new cases are cases of local transmission. Health officials have compiled a list of people that at least one of these new patients has been in recent contact with. Almost all of the people on this list have already been tested, and none have had a positive result so far. 
[FULL  STORY]

Town Hall
Date: Mar 21, 2020
By: Beth Baumann

China is single-handedly responsible for the Wuhan coronavirus becoming a pandemic. Chinese officials were more focused on covering up what was happening in their country than trying to prevent the spread of the disease. In fact, the State Department took issue with the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai pushing false information that the virus began in the United States. The World Health Organization worked alongside China to cover up what was taking place, which is why the organization ignored Taiwan's warning about the Wuhan coronavirus back in December. 

Despite knowing what we know, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) is praising China for how they've handled this epidemic-turned-pandemic.

"You gotta make sure you're helping families, make sure unemployment insurance is there, make sure families aren't losing their homes or can't buy food, but at the same time, you have to keep other elements of the economy continuing to work," Peters said on Morning Joe. “We saw that in China. Outside of Hubei province, a lot of the factories continued to work. They separated their employees. They had partitions. They found ways to continue to keep some of the economy going in other parts of the country that weren’t impacted as much as it was in Hubei."

According to the Michigan Senator, America needs to implement the same kind of economic strategy.     [FULL  STORY]

Man offended in particularly extreme manner by visiting nightclub when ordered to stay home

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/22
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A New Taipei City man surnamed Huang faces a NT$1 million (US$33,000) fine for patronizing a night club when he was supposed to be at home observing a 14-day quarantine.

The New Taipei City Government said that Huang, who resides in Sanchong District, was booked for the quarantine violation by the Taipei City Police Department when they made a spot check at a night club on Sunday morning, CNA reported. Huang returned to Taiwan from Southeast Asia on March 18 and was supposed to quarantine himself at home until April 2.    [FULL  STORY]
 

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/22/2020
By|: Chen Wei-ting and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 22 (CNA) A total of 16 new coronavirus cases, 13 of which originated overseas, were

confirmed in Taiwan on Sunday, bringing the total number to 169 since the outbreak began, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

Among the new patients, three are believed to have contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) locally, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC.

One of the three, a woman in her 20s, is a nurse at a nursing home. So far, 81 doctors, nurses and residents at the nursing home have been tested for COVID-19, and all have tested negative, according to Chen.

Health authorities are now moving five of the 53 patients to a nearby hospital while the rest of the 48 will be sent to two quarantine locations to prevent a further spread of the disease, said Deputy Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元).    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan acted early to make sure there were supplies of masks, sanitizer

CBC
By: Caitlin Taylor, Stephanie Kampf, Tyana Grundig and David Common · CBC · 
Date:: Mar 21, 2020 | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

How Taiwan is beating COVID-19. Can Canada do the same?

Both Taiwan and Canada reported their first presumptive cases of COVID-19 within days of each other, but their experience of life with the pandemic has been quite different. Children in Taiwan are still in school, restaurants are open and there’s no shortage of protective supplies. Watch what Canada can learn from Taiwan's approach to fight the spread of the coronavirus. 

It's almost life as usual for the Lin family of Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic — with a few noticeable exceptions.

"We didn't worry too much," said Leeli Chang, who lives with her husband, Terry Lin, and her daughter, Peggy, 8, in a suburb of Taipei.

The family, like many in Taiwan, has continued to go to work, to school and out shopping as normal since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but now with some precautions in place — such as regular temperature checks and hand sanitizer dispensers outside most public buildings and protective masks.    [FULL  STORY]