Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 31 January, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak in China is taking its toll on the global economy, and fruit farmers in Taiwan’s Taitung County are feeling the pinch, too.

It’s the first day of work after the extended Lunar New Year holiday. Fruit farmers in southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung County head out to the fields to collect custard apples that are as big as a baby’s head. Fruit farmer Lee Chung-wu says that this batch of custard apples is headed to Singapore.

Lee is lucky. Many of the county’s fruit farmers are unable to get their produce out to where it needs to go. That’s because China is shut down. As an outbreak of novel coronavirus spreads, China has extended its Lunar New Year holiday to February 2, and China’s customs agency is closed.
[FULL  STORY]

The first part of the line runs between Dapinglin Station in the south and New Taipei Industrial Park Station in the west

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/31
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Circular Line, or Yellow Line, officially started operation on Friday (Jan. 31), with passengers able to ride free of charge until the end of February.

The company announced that holders of Easycard and its equivalents can swipe their cards at the turnstile with no charge applied for rides on the Circular Line for the first month of operation.

The first part of the line available for the ride includes 14 stations and runs between Dapinglin Station in the south and New Taipei Industrial Park Station in the west, with trains passing through the New Taipei City districts of Xindian, Zhonghe, Banqiao, and Xinzhuang. The new line will see interchanges with several other lines already completed, including the Bannan (Blue) Line; Songshan-Xindian (Green) Line; Zhonghe-Xinlu (Orange) Line; the Airport MRT Line; and others still uncompleted.

The first segment of the line spans 15.4 kilometers and is driverless. It is expected to reduce travel time between Xindian and Xinzhuang by at least 20 minutes.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/31/2020
By: Liao Yu-yang and Frances Huang

Taipei, Jan. 31 (CNA) The Cabinet has approved a plan by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to build 60 lines to produce 6 million surgical masks a day to meet surging demand as people try to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

In approving the plan Friday night, the Cabinet said the new lines, to be built at a cost of NT$200 million (US$6.66 million), could be ramped up to a capacity of 3 million masks a day in three weeks and to 6 million masks a day in four to five weeks.

Counting Taiwan's existing capacity of 4 million masks a day, that would bring total production to over 10 millions surgical masks a day.

The move clearly demonstrated the hollowness of the government's guarantees earlier in the month that supplies of surgical masks would be sufficient and even recent attempts to downplay that shortages existed.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 January, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The government is warning sellers of surgical masks to follow regulations amid a spike in demand.[/caption] The government is warning sellers of surgical masks that they will face fines if they are found hoarding supplies or inflating prices. The warning comes amid as concern about a coronavirus outbreak centered in China creates a surge in demand for surgical masks in Taiwan.

Logistics teams across Taiwan have been busy this week getting surgical masks to the places where they are needed. Demand for masks has shot up in Taiwan since the discovery here of several coronavirus cases linked to an outbreak in China.

Surgical masks are a common-enough sight in Taiwan, worn in public by both the sick and those trying to protect themselves from illness. But this recent surge in demand has overwhelmed supplies. One vendor estimates demand is now at more than 20 times above normal levels.
[FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: January 30, 2020
By: Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan repeated its offer to help China fight the new coronavirus on Thursday, but said it also wanted China to help send back to the island some 400 Taiwanese who have been stranded in the epicenter city of Wuhan by a lockdown.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak, in Taipei, Taiwan January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Fabian Hamacher

Self-ruled Taiwan has close economic and cultural links with China and has so far reported nine cases of the virus, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and where most of the 170 deaths to date have occurred.

But political relations are tense. China has stepped up pressure on Taiwan, which it considers its own territory to be taken by force if needed, including holding military drills near the democratic island.    [FULL  STORY]

Man had been on same flight as Taiwan’s 4th coronavirus patient: Public Health Bureau

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/30
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Changhua County Public Health Bureau (CHSHB) has issued an NT$100,000 (US$3,300) fine to a man for failing to comply with the 14-day home quarantine rule despite having been on the same plane as Taiwan's fourth novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) patient.

As of Thursday afternoon (Jan. 30), Taiwan has confirmed eight 2019-nCoV cases, including a Taiwanese woman who was diagnosed with the virus Sunday (Jan. 26). According to UDN, officials had been unable to reach the man, who had been placed under home quarantine after sharing the same flight as the female patient, at the phone numbers he provided Sunday at the airport.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/30/2020
By: Wang Shu-fen and Ko Lin

Taipei, Jan. 30 (CNA) The suspension of all tours to China imposed on Taiwanese travel agencies will be further extended until the end of February as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to increase, the Tourism Bureau said Thursday.

The decision was made after a meeting between tour operators and local officials, including Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) and Chen Wen-ruey (陳文瑞), who heads the transportation ministry's Department of Railways and Highways.

In a release, the bureau said the meeting was mainly about better understanding the current situation faced by travel agencies impacted by the suspension, and to discuss plans to boost the country's tourism industry.

On Jan. 24, the Tourism Bureau issued a notice to tour operators ordering the suspension of all tours to China, to take effect the following day and last until Jan. 31.    [FULL  STORY]

THE RACE BEGINS: Former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei said he would not seek the chairperson position, while Hau Lung-bin is expected to apply today

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 31, 2020
By: Dennis Xie  /  Staff writer, with CNA

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday obtained an

application form for the party’s chairperson by-election, signaling the start of a face-off between the party’s old guard and younger generation.

Registration for the by-election is set for Monday and Tuesday next week, while the election is to be held on March 7.

Following the party’s defeats in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections, KMT members have been debating how to reform the party.

Representing the KMT’s younger faction, Chiang was the first to take the application and pay the required NT$2 million (US$66,057) fee, while former KMT vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), seen as Chiang’s main opponent, is expected to pick up a form today.    [FULL  STORY]