LIMITED SPREAD: Of the more than 200 people who came in close contact with the taxi driver and his three infected relatives, 175 have tested negative for the virus

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 19, 2020
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

A Taiwanese man who returned from China’s Zhejiang Province late last month has been identified as

the suspected source of infection for the nation’s first COVID-19 death, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

The death of the nation’s 19th confirmed case of COVID-19 was announced on Sunday: a 61-year-old Taiwanese man who was hospitalized for suspected serious flu complications with pneumonia on Feb. 3 and died of sepsis on Saturday, shortly after he tested positive for the virus.

The man was an independent taxi driver who late last month transported at least three Taiwanese passengers returning from China before he began exhibiting symptoms on Jan. 27, the center said, adding that it was working to trace everyone who came into contact with him for COVID-19 screening as soon as possible.

The man’s 51-year-old brother, who lived with him, tested positive for the disease on Saturday and was on Sunday announced as the nation’s 20th confirmed case.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 February, 2020
By: Jake Chen

The National Fire Agency (NFA) is warning people to be careful about how they use electrical appliances during the current spell of cold weather.

The agency released a graphic showing how the improper use of electrical appliances could pose a safety risk.    [FULL  STORY]

​Taiwan has seen the first suspected community-transmitted case of the coronavirus. To prevent community spread, Taiwan has expanded its screening measures to include any individuals with foreign travel history in the past 14 days.

The News Lens
Date: 2020/02/17
By: Daphne K. Lee

A taxi driver with no known history of traveling to China has died on Saturday due to complications from the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19), marking the first such death in Taiwan, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung announced. 

The deceased, a 61-year-old man who had diabetes and hepatitis B, could be the first case of community transmission in Taiwan, according to the health minister. His younger brother was also confirmed infected last week without showing symptoms. 

Chen said this suspected case of local transmission has yet to constitute a “community spread,” which would mean a serious escalation of public health risks. Signs of a community spread include a sustained chain of infection, the number of local transmission cases surpassing that of the imported ones, which have not occurred in Taiwan, he said. 

“We’re hoping to find out the source of the contraction as soon as possible,” Chen said at a press conference on Sunday.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan could see 7,000 Wuhan coronavirus infections says public health expert

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/17
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan could ultimately see 7,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), according to a public health expert who spoke at a press conference on Monday (Feb. 17).

Chen Hsiu-hsi (陳秀熙), vice dean of National Taiwan University’s Department of Public Health on Monday said that before Wuhan was locked down, approximately 7,500 Chinese from the infested city visited Taiwan, reported Rti. Of that number, Chen estimates that 505 could have already been infected with the disease.

Chen said that before Wuhan was sealed off, more than 5 million people left the city for the Lunar New Year holiday. Of those people pouring out of the city at the time, 7,515 visited Taiwan, 505 of whom could have been carrying COVID-19.

He said that of those 505, 111 were not tested because at the time people who did not have a fever were not tested for the illness. Chen said that in the three weeks since Wuhan has been locked down, those who potentially were infected in Taiwan have mainly been placed in quarantine.
[FULL  STORY8]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/17/2020
By: Matt Yu, Wang Yang-yu and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Feb. 17 (CNA) Taiwan's intelligence apparatus was likely involved in the shocking triple homicide of a democracy activist's family members 40 years ago, but the destruction of key evidence has made it hard to draw firm conclusions, a new report has found.

The report, released by the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC), summarized the TJC's findings from its investigation of the murder of Lin Yi-hsiung's (林義雄) mother and twin daughters at Lin's residence on Feb. 28, 1980 in a case that has never been solved.

The report is based on a review of related historical files related to the case that were declassified due to the passage of the Political Archives Act in July 2019.

It is widely believed that the authoritarian Kuomintang regime of the time was responsible for the act, which took place while Lin was detained for his opposition to the government, but the report did not reach any specific conclusions on the perpetrator.    [FULL  STORY]

‘SPORADIC CASE’: The two new cases are family members of a taxi driver who died on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19 infection

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 18, 2020
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has reported two more confirmed cases of COVID-

19 infection, raising the total number of cases in the nation to 22.

The two new cases are family members who lived with the 19th confirmed patient, who became the first in the nation to die from the infection on Saturday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told a news conference last night.

The center on Sunday night said the 19th confirmed patient did not travel abroad and had not been exposed to infected cases, but added that the risk of “community spread” was low.

The 19th case was a 61-year-old man in central Taiwan, who was hospitalized on Feb. 3 for suspected serious flu complications with pneumonia. He died on Saturday, shortly after he tested positive for COVID-19.    [FULL  STORY]

• Lifted by US support for its presence on world stage and empowered by voters at home, Taiwan’s pro-independence government continues face-off with Beijing
• Opposing Taipei is the ‘one-China’ principle, but analysts say there must be compromise between neighbours before stand-off becomes confrontation

South China Morning Post
Date: 16 Feb, 2020
By: Lawrence Chung

First it was residual anti-mainland sentiment from a fiercely fought presidential election in January.

Now disagreement between Beijing and Taipei over the repatriation of Taiwanese from the epicentre of a deadly coronavirus outbreak is piling pressure on already strained relations across the Taiwan Strait.

Analysts said that failure to resolve such disputes could turn stalemate into confrontation, with Tsai Ing-wen, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, winning a second four-year term as the island’s leader in a clear rejection of the pro-Beijing Kuomintang.

The repatriation dispute erupted when Beijing ignored Taipei’s request to airlift about 500 people from Wuhan, despite allowing various countries to allow such flights.    [FULL  ST-ORY]

Overall tensions between Beijing and Taipei have been rising since Tsai’s reelection. 

The National Interest
Date: February 16, 2020
By: Ted Galen Carpenter

The Chinese military is flexing its muscles in the Taiwan Strait in response to last month’s electoral triumph by Taiwan’s pro‐​independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). President Tsai Ing-wen’s landslide reelection, combined with the DPP’s retention of a majority in the legislature, infuriated Beijing’s leadership. A dangerously provocative response was not long in coming.

Acrimonious bilateral relations took on a worrisome military dimension early this week. Despite the onset of the coronavirus crisis and the pervasive disruptions it has caused, the Chinese government found time to orchestrate a show of force in the Strait. Taiwan’s air force scrambled for a second day in a row on Monday to intercept Chinese jets (both fighters and bombers) that briefly crossed an unofficial, but very important, mid‐​line in the Strait, prompting Taipei to dispatch F‑16s to intercept and give blunt verbal warnings to leave. The Chinese planes then withdrew to the western side of the line.

Although China has been flying “island encirclement” drills periodically since 2016 when Tsai first took office, this was only the second occasion that its military aircraft crossed the median line. Beijing’s subsequent comments emphasizing that the flights were meant to hone the military’s combat capabilities were hardly calculated to reduce tensions. China’s Eastern Theatre Command implicitly identified the motive for the latest drills, stating that “Taiwan independence forces have ignored national justice and stepped up their pursuit of independence.”

Overall tensions between Beijing and Taipei have been rising since Tsai’s reelection. The DPP’s emphatic victory eradicated any lingering hopes Chinese leaders harbored that Tsai would be a one‐​term president and cross‐​strait relations would return to “normal.” The results were an emphatic endorsement of Tsai’s uncompromising policy toward the mainland, and she lost no time in acting on that mandate. Her initial comments seemed almost calculated to escalate tensions with the mainland. “We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” Tsai told the BBC. “We are an independent country already.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/16/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Feb. 16 (CNA) Taiwan will expand screening for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) by taking samples from all travelers arriving in the country who have a fever or respiratory symptoms starting Monday, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

With the number of confirmed cononavirus cases increasing in Singapore and Thailand, the CECC last week raised the travel alert to Singapore to level two, which urges citizens to take "protective measures" if they travel there.

The alert for Thailand has been raised to level one, urging people heading there to "adhere to local preventive measures," according to Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), deputy director-general of Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control and a CECC official.

The CECC already tests individuals arriving in Taiwan who have traveled to the two countries over the past two weeks and show symptoms.    [FULL  STORY]