Taipei man fatally stabs scooter driver after arguing with wife over where to eat

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/16
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taipei man is facing murder charges after fatally stabbing a man seated on his scooter after getting into an argument with his wife over where to go to eat.

At about 11 p.m. on Friday (March 13), a 23-year-old man identified as Wang Ping-hua (王秉華), allegedly stabbed a motorist at the intersection of Zhongzheng Road and Minquan Road in New Taipei City's Xindian District. Wang reportedly had become engaged in a heated argument with his wife over where they were planning to eat before grabbing a 20 cm sashimi knife and using it to inflict mortal wounds to a random bystander sitting on his scooter next to the sidewalk.

The incident occurred near New Taipei's Xiulang Bridge, where Wang, after arguing with his 26-year-old newly married wife, surnamed Hsu (許) in their car, suddenly leaped out and stabbed a 33-year-old man surnamed Lin (林), reported Liberty Times. Lin suffered a fatal loss of blood, and after he was rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors were unable to resuscitate him.

Horrified by Wang's brutal assault of the man, Hsu called the police immediately. When police arrested Wang at the scene 20 minutes later, he said he had "gone out of control."
[FULL  STORY]

The Star (Toronto Star Newspapers)
Date: March 16, 2020
By: Miriam ShuchmanContributor

According to predictions based on airline travel, the island of Taiwan, just 160 km from China, was likely to be among the countries hardest hit by COVID-19. Several million Chinese visit Taiwan annually and about 3 million Taiwanese work in China, including 2,000 in Wuhan, where the outbreak began.

But Taiwan’s numbers have remained comparatively low, with 59 cases of the disease and only one death so far, in a country of 23.6 million. Dr. Chih-Hung Jason Wang, a Taiwanese-American pediatrician and health policy professor at Stanford University who described Taiwan’s experience in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said the country’s success reflects scores of strategies it’s using to battle the outbreak.    [FULL  STORY]

8 new patients mark Taiwan's biggest single increase of Wuhan virus cases in one day

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/16
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday

(March 16) announced eight confirmed cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), the country's largest single-day increase since the outbreak began.

During a press conference on Monday afternoon, Health Minister and CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) announced that Taiwan's eight new cases all contracted the disease while traveling abroad. Chen said that Cases 60 through 67 had traveled to countries such as Italy, Germany, Greece, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, Spain, and Turkey before returning to Taiwan.

Chen said the 60th case had visited Italy, Germany, Spain, and Greece. The 61st case had taken a trip to the Czech Republic, while the 62nd case had traveled to the Philippines.

Chen stated that the 63rd case had been on the same tour of Egypt as the 55th case. As for the 64th case, he said the patient is a male student in his 20s who attended same school in Spain as the 58th case.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/16/2020
By Chiang Yi-ching, Wen Kuei-hsiang and Wang Cheng-chung, CNA staff writers

In January, when the world started taking notice of COVID-19, a new coronavirus disease that was rapidly spreading from the Chinese city of Wuhan, researchers at John Hopkins University predicted that Taiwan would be one of the hardest-hit countries.

Taiwan sits just 130 kilometers from China; 404,000 of its 23 million citizens were working in China in 2019, and more than 2.7 million Chinese nationals traveled to Taiwan that same year. A massive outbreak in the country seemed all but inevitable.

Yet despite the odds, Taiwan had recorded only 67 cases of the disease as of Monday, with one patient dying. That's significantly lower compared to its East Asian neighbors. China, where the disease was first detected, has 81,020 cases and 3,217 deaths to date. South Korea has seen 8,162 people infected and 75 dead, while Japan has reported 839 cases and 22 deaths.

As COVID-19 continues to spread at an unprecedented pace in countries like the United States, Italy and Iran, public health scholars have pointed to Taiwan as a society that has responded quickly to the crisis and has effectively protected its citizens.    [FULL  STORY]

TOUGHER RULES: People who travel to places under warning notices risk having to pay for testing and treatment if they contract COVID-19, and having their names made public

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 17, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday raised the travel notice for 42 countries and one area in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and northern Africa to a level 3 “warning,” and reported eight new imported cases of COVID-19.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said the global COVID-19 pandemic has changed drastically in the past few days, and the eight new cases — raising the nation’s total to 67 — were all people who had just returned to Taiwan.

Case No. 60 traveled on their own to Italy, Greece and Germany; No. 61 visited Austria and the Czech Republic with a tour group; No. 62 visited the Philippines with her family; No. 63 was part of the same tour to Egypt as the 55th case reported on Sunday; and No. 64 studied at the same Spanish school as the 58th case reported on Sunday, he said.

Cases No. 65 to 67 were on the same 15-person tour to Turkey as the 56th and 57th cases reported on Sunday, he added.    [FULL  STORY]

The algemeiner
Date: March 15, 2020
By: Roie Yellinek

In the late 1940s, both Taiwan and the modern-day State of Israel managed to face down massive powers that categorically rejected their rights to their land. The Israelis’ opponents were an array of Arab armies and terror groups (and their international supporters), while the Taiwanese stood against the Communist Party of China. The two countries are both islands of sorts: Taiwan a literal island not far from mainland China, and Israel a metaphorical island surrounded by states that reject its very existence.

Because of their physical isolation, both countries needed a superpower to protect them, and the US was ready, willing, and able to play that role. Israel and Taiwan view the US as a great ally and benefit from its economic and military support, and both wish to be viewed by the US as important allies in turn. The two states have something else in common: a meager supply of natural resources but an abundance of human capital.

Both Israel and Taiwan struggle for international recognition, yet have not recognized one another. This is essentially because the Israelis want a positive relationship with Beijing and the Taiwanese want a positive relationship with the Arab world.    [FULL  STORY]

• The coronavirus may be keeping the tourists away, but locals are flocking to areas around Taipei to see the cherry blossoms
• The sites are easy to reach from the city, and have beautiful rural backdrops, unlike Japan’s urban scenery

South China Morning Post
Date: 15 Mar, 2020
By: Ralph Jennings

Cherry trees started to blossom around Taipei in mid-January this year because of unseasonably warm weather. Then along came the coronavirus, which sparked fear of venturing out to crowded malls and restaurants.

While tourists are avoiding Taiwan, despite its relatively low number of confirmed cases, local crowds are forming around the trees, where flowers radiate photogenic pinks, reds and whites.Greater Taipei stands out for having some of Asia’s most easily accessible mountain cherry blossoms

.“The advantage here in the northern parts is convenience, and up here you do not need to wear a face mask,” says Tina Lee, 22, a Chang Gung University of Science and Technology student who has come to see the blossoms for the first time at Yangming Park, about 400 metres above sea level and 45 minutes by bus from central Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]

When rescued from her car, driver had no heartbeat and was not breathing

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/15
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A female driver whose car hit multiple cows in Taiwan’s eastern county of Taitung had no heartbeat and was not breathing when first responders reached her Sunday morning, CNA reported.

Police said that a car traveling northbound hit a pair of cows intruding onto Provincial Highway 11 in Chenggong Township sometime after 1 a.m, according to the news agency. When police and firefighters arrived at the scene, they found two dead cattle and a car with a smashed front end.

The driver of the car was rushed to the Chenggong branch of Taitung Hospital, where she remains in critical condition. An investigation is still ongoing into the cause of the accident, the news agency said.

According to Taitung County Police Bureau statistics, there have been 11 accidents in the county involving vehicles hitting cattle since 2016. Last June, a woman surnamed Tang (唐) hit a cow when she was riding a scooter home along the eastern coast; she later died from injuries sustained in the accident.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/15/2020
By: Wang Shu-fen and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Taiwan's two major carriers said Sunday they will suspend some flights to the United States and Europe, since airline crew and travelers arriving from those areas are required to observe either a 14-day self-quarantine or self-health management regime, due to the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a statement, EVA Airways said it will adjust the frequency of its flights to Europe starting Monday, based on travel demand and the work rotation of its flight crew.

Taiwan's other major carrier, China Airlines (CAL), also announced Sunday that it will be suspending some of its long-haul flights over the next 20 days, including those to New York, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland and Vienna.

The flight suspensions followed a decision by Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) Saturday to raise its travel alert for 27 European countries to a Level 3 warning, the highest on its three-tier scale.    FULL  STORY]

’AVOID TRAVEL’: The minister of health and welfare called on people not to travel unless necessary, saying that bringing the disease back to Taiwan would cause harm

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 16, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced six new cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan, all believed to have been imported, the highest number of new confirmed cases in one day, which brought the total to 59.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the nation’s 54th case visited Thailand and Japan; the 55th case led a tour group of 32 people to Egypt; the 56th and 57th cases traveled to Turkey in a group of 15 people; the 58th case is a student who studied in Spain; and the 59th case is a student who visited Greece for about a month.

The nation’s 47th to 59th cases are all imported, except the 50th case, who was in Taiwan, but contracted the virus from his friends visiting him from the US, Chen said.

The 54th case is a man in his 30s who visited Thailand from Feb. 28 to March 1 and Hokkaido from March 5 to 8, the center said.    [FULL  STORY]