Radiio Taiwan International
Date: 19 March, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Kaohsiung offers counseling to people quarantined at home. (CNA Photo)[/caption] As of Thursday, anyone allowed to enter Taiwan must self-quarantine for 14 days. This prolonged isolation has caused discomfort for some, but quarantined residents of the southern city of Kaohsiung, at least, have access to professional help.

The city of Kaohsiung wants its quarantined residents to know that they aren’t alone. The city has set up a team of counsellors to help those subject to COVID-19 quarantines get through what for many is an ordeal.    [FULL  STORY]

Brookings
Date: March 19, 2020
By: Don Shapiro, Senior Director – American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei

As the coronavirus pandemic takes a rapidly increasing toll on the health and well-being of people around the world — as well as the global economy and social fabric more broadly — Taiwan has won widespread recognition for its impressive performance in dealing with the crisis. Relying on a combination of preparedness, technology, and transparency, Taiwan has managed to limit the number of reported cases in Taiwan so far to 108 (with just a single coronavirus-related death) — far fewer than in neighboring countries.

The public health professionalism and sense of global responsibility Taiwan has displayed underscore the irrationality of Taiwan’s exclusion from the World Health Organization and its information channels due to political objections from China.

A key element in Taiwan’s preparedness was the lessons learned from its devastating experience with the SARS epidemic in 2003, which caused 71 deaths on the island of 23 million people. Seeing that the initial response to SARS was hampered by the lack of a centralized decisionmaking body to take charge during a health crisis, Taiwan later that year authorized the creation of a Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to coordinate across government departments and mobilize the necessary resources during future crises.

To fight the current coronavirus, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen activated the CECC as early as January 20, with the minister of health and welfare designated as the commander. Over the following weeks, the CECC put scores of measures into effect to aid in containing the disease and preventing its spread into the general community. This included screening incoming travelers for fever and implementing a system of rationing face masks to prevent hoarding.
[FULL  STORY]

Long lines form at Taoyuan Airport due to Taiwan travel ban, quarantine rule

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/19
By: Keoni Everington , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the first day of a ban on foreign visitors went into effect on Thursday (March 19) the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) was swarmed with thousands of foreign passengers confused about their eligibility to enter the country and bewildered by the new quarantine policy.

During a press conference held on Wednesday morning, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) announced that all foreign nationals will be barred from entering Taiwan, with the exception of persons holding an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC, 居留證), diplomatic officials, and businesspeople with special entry permits, effective on Thursday.

Later that same day in Taipei, Director-General Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) of the foreign ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs clarified that foreigners holding a visitor or landing visa must leave the country before their visas expire. The only exception would be "force majeure" (unforeseeable circumstances that prevent an individual from fulfilling a contract), such as a national disaster or serious illness.

Many foreigners were not aware of the sudden policy change and the 12 a.m. March 19 deadline. By Thursday morning, many foreigners were landing at TPE unaware that they could no longer enter the country with visa-exempt status.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Dater: 03/19/2020
By: Liang Pei-chi, Sunrise Huang and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Taipei and New Taipei cities are in talks with a number of local hotels to become "quarantine hotels" serving those required to undergo quarantine, after the four current hotels became fully booked following the introduction of new border controls amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) of Taipei's Department of Information and Tourism said the capital city's three existing "quarantine hotels" are fully booked.

The city government is in talks with more hotel operators to encourage them to join the initiative, Liu added.

Meanwhile, New Taipei City government said the one quarantine hotel contracted by the city is also full and it is looking to sign contracts with more hotels to meet increased demand.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 20, 2020
By Dennis Xie / Staff writer, with CNA

Human rights groups and lawmakers yesterday demanded China immediately release imprisoned rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), as they marked the third anniversary of his detention in Guangdong Province.

Lee, a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, went missing on March 19, 2017, after entering Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, from Macau. On Nov. 28 that year, the Yueyang City Intermediate People’s Court in Hunan Province sentenced him to five years in Chishan Prison for subversion of state power by using online discussion groups to disseminate information attacking the Chinese government and for supporting the families of Chinese dissidents.

Taiwan has not forgotten Lee, members of the Rescue Lee Ming-che Team told a news conference in Taipei, which included a display about “365 Letters Written to Lee Ming-che” exhibition of letters written by Taiwanese to Lee.

5Exhibition curator Wu Ting-chen (吳亭臻) urged the public to write more letters to Lee and urged the Chinese government to release Lee.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 18 March, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

Wildlife officials are getting ready to release a young Formosan black bear they rescued last year back into the wild. They have nursed the bear back to health and are training it to survive on its own in the wild—with adorable results!

It can be a tough world out there for Formosan black bears. One was found dead in Hualien County on Wednesday, apparently from the bite of another animal.

For young bear Mulas, though, life is still all fun and games. Wildlife officials found Mulas separated from its mother in July last year. They rescued the little bear and have ensured that it has been well looked-after since. From a frail creature weighing just 4kg, Mulas has grown to weigh nearly 35kg.    [FULL  STORY]

Time
Date: March 18, 2020
By: Anders Rassmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen was the Prime Minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009.

Eight hundred and fifty thousand of Taiwan’s 23 million citizens reside in mainland China. Four hundred thousand work there. At its narrowest point, the Taiwan Strait between the island and the mainland is just 130 km. So, by all accounts, Taiwan should be in the midst a major coronavirus outbreak. Instead, as of March 18, it had seen just 100 cases compared to the more than 80,000 in China and the tens of thousands in several countries in Europe.

This has not happened by chance. Learning from the experiences of SARS in 2003, Taiwan was ready when the outbreak in Wuhan occurred. After the first notifications at the end of 2019, Taipei swiftly deployed a combination of measures to identify and contain the virus, including the use of big data to help contain potential cases.

The global health community could have learned from Taiwan’s experience. But in recent years its world-class health specialists have been shut out in the cold by Beijing’s geopolitical obsessions. In 2016, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen came to power with a mandate to assert her people’s autonomy. China did not take kindly to this democratic challenge to its “One China” policy and bullied the world’s multilateral institutions into dealing only with Beijing. As a result, Taipei was denied access to a number of international fora which it was previously able to attend as an observer.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan CECC experts baffled by local woman's coronavirus infection

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Health Minister and CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that out of the 23 new cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) announced on Wednesday (March 18), a young Taiwanese woman's diagnosis is the most perplexing as she had no recent history of travel or known contact with previous cases.

During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon (March 18), Chen announced that 21 of the new cases had traveled to Asia, Europe, or the U.S. and that two had contracted the disease in Taiwan. However, he said that one of the domestic cases had no recent history of travel outside the country.

Chen said that one woman in her 20s sought treatment on March 12, had no history of recent travel, and "lived a simple life." The expert epidemiologist said her case is the most worrying, as they do not know how she contracted the disease.    [FULL  STORY]

NOT ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY: The Green Citizens’ Action Alliance is developing a mobile application that would allow people to view companies’ pollution records

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 19, 2020
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter

State-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), food supplier Vedan Enterprise Corp (味丹) and meat supplier Great Wall Enterprise Co (大成長城企業) were among the nation’s top water polluters last year, the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance said yesterday.

The group is developing a mobile application so that people can see companies’ pollution records, it added.

The alliance sifted through Environmental Protection Administration data to identify the top 20 water polluters last year and gave four companies its “Golden Pollution Award” 6at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

Yuan Tai Industrial Co (沅泰工業), an electroplating factory built on farmland with a temporary permit, incurred the largest fine — NT$11.49 million (US$379,509) — for three pollution incidents, alliance member Ko Chien-yung (柯乾庸) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/18/2020
By Chen Wei-ting and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, March 18 (CNA) Taiwan will impose its highest Level 3 travel warning on the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand starting Thursday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Wednesday, though the effects of the move will be largely superseded by a separate policy mandating 14-day home quarantine for all arriving travelers.

At a press briefing, the CECC said the Level 3 warning urges people to avoid non-essential travel to the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, due to increased risks posed by the coronavirus disease COVID-19, which has spread at a community level in all four countries.

Under the warning, people arriving from travel to, or airport transit through, the countries will be required to home quarantine for 14 days, the CECC said.    [FULL  STORY]