Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 July, 2020
By: Paula Chao

A Japanese railroad buff has been introducing the allure of Taiwan’s railroads to his fellow countrymen, and the Tourism Bureau has taken note.

Kekke Yoshiyuki has visited Taiwan 300 times to ride its rails. At the invitation of Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau, Kekke gave a talk in Japan Wednesday on the joys of seeing Taiwan by rail.
[FULL  STORY]

Dr. Ho Mei-shang warns real challenge of community transmission would come in fall/winter

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/30
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A leading epidemiologist estimates that there are a shocking number of potentially asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers in Taiwan, after reports that a Japanese student and a Thai worker tested positive for the virus upon returning home from the country.

Dr. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an adjunct research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Biomedical Sciences, made a post to her blog on Wednesday (July 29), which estimated that there are likely 300 to 600 people in Taiwan who may be unwittingly spreading the virus. The number was calculated based on the immigration office statistics of departing air passengers in June alone, among which 25,466 out of 29,980 were aged between 14 and 64.

Ho then compared the ratio of the two positive tests over the total departing passengers aged 14-64 that month to the domestic population of the same age group, concluding that around 300 to 600 people in the country might carry the virus at this moment.

"People would naturally come to think that the two cases might not be the exceptions and want to know how many asymptomatic carriers on the island could be spreading the virus in local communities," she said. These 300-600 people might be the source of community spread in the fall and winter, in other words, flu season; by then, it would be a genuine test of Taiwan's capability to control community transmission.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/30/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan, Han Ting-ting and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday that the sale of 36 drugs for the treatment of stomach ulcers will be prohibited in the country, with effect from Aug. 1, as they have been found to pose a cancer risk.

The ban will apply to drugs with the active ingredient ranitidine, which contains traces of the contaminant and probable carcinogen N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), the agency said, citing international studies.

The studies have also found that the NDMA levels in drug products increase over time and with exposure to heat, sometimes in excess of the acceptable daily intake of 96 nanograms, the FDA said.

On the Taiwan market, there are 36 drug products that contain ranitidine, 29 of which are prescription drugs and seven over-the-counter medications, all for the treatment of stomach ulcers, the FDA said in a press release.    [FULL  STORY]

TOMORROW AFTERNOON: Candidates Jane Lee, Wu Yi-jheng and Chen Chi-mai say that they want to reduce debt, share comprehensible concepts and improve the city

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 31, 2020
By: Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

The only policy debate among Kaohsiung mayoral by-election candidates is to take place tomorrow afternoon and it is to be shown live on TV and the Internet.

Voting for the by-election is to take place on Aug. 15.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is represented by Kaohsiung City Councilor Jane Lee (李眉蓁), the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) by Kaohsiung City Councilor Wu Yi-jheng (吳益政) and the Democratic Progressive Party by former vice premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).

The policy presentation is to be held at the Kaohsiung City Government’s Siwei Administrative Center from 2:30pm to 4pm.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 July, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Taiwan’s newly-appointed envoy to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, says that Taiwan is looking forward to building closer ties between the two sides. 

On Monday, Hsiao met with David Stilwell, a State Department official in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs. During the meeting, Hsiao said that Taiwan will work on expanding exchanges with the United States in the areas of economy, security, culture, and education over the next few years.    [FULL  STORY]

Straits Times
Date: July 28, 2020

TAIPEI (REUTERS) – Taiwan on Tuesday (July 28) was investigating its first possible local coronavirus infection in more than a month, a Thai man who tested positive last week, as the island also faces a rise in cases brought from overseas.

Taiwan's early response was effective in keeping the pandemic at bay, with just 467 infections and seven deaths. Most of the cases have been imported and have recovered.

Until the Thai man's positive test, the island had not seen a local case of coronavirus infection since June 24.

Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre said it was probing where and how the man contracted the virus.    [FULL  STORY]

Videos show cities upstream of Three Gorges Dam inundated by biggest flood this year

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/07/28
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Chongqing Chaotianmen Dock. (YouTube, Real China TV screenshot)[/caption] TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Despite the purported "flood reduction" effects of the Three Gorges Dam downstream, Chongqing was hit by the crest of a massive flood on Monday (July 27), inundating parts of the megacity, as well as other nearby municipalities.

After being pounded by torrential rain for days, the Changjiang Water Resources Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources on Sunday (July 26) announced that the "No. 3 Flood" was striking the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin. The mammoth flood surged down the Jialing River, a tributary of the Yangtze, submerging the ancient town of Ciqikou and inundating low-lying areas of the megapolis Chongqing, including its famous landmark Chaotianmen.

Hong Kong's Economic Times reports that by 6 a.m. on Monday morning the water level at the Cuntan hydrologic station in Chongqing rose to 180.5 meters, exceeding the warning level for the first time this year. This also represents the largest flood to pass through Chongqing so far this year.

Located at the nexus of the Yangtze River and Jialing River, water buried Chaotianmen 180 Platform, the Chaotianmen Dock, and floodwaters reached the middle of the Chaotianmen Square entrance. Meanwhile, the water level in Ciqikou, a town with a thousand years of history, climbed to 184.07 meters, three meters higher than the warning level.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/28/2020
By: Flor Wang and Chen Wei-ting

Taipei, July 28 (CNA) The incidence of child abuse in Taiwan is closely linked to parents' unemployment, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou said Tuesday, citing one of its studies, and it urged the government and private sector to pay heed to the issue at this time when people are out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at a news conference, Hsin Yi-chen (辛宜臻), an attending physician in the hospital's Department of Pediatric General Medicine, said the correlation between unemployment and child abuse became evident in the United States during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when the number of children hospitalized with brain damage nearly doubled from previous years.

It was later discovered that the spike in child abuse during that period was closely related to a high unemployment rate at the time, Hsin said.

She said that in 2018, a team at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou conducted a similar study, using unemployment data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics for the period 2004 to 2015, and a correlation between the two factors was also found.
[FULL  STORY]