Focus Taiwan
Date 04/19/2020
By: Tseng Ting-hsun and Evelyn Kao

Paris, April 18 (CNA) Taiwan's approach to fighting the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been featured in stories done by two French television channels the past two days.

On Saturday, TF1, the leading television channel in France, ran a story on why Taiwan has been successful in containing the COVID-19 outbreak, reporting fewer than 400 confirmed cases of coronavirus to date and only six deaths.

Reporter Anne-Claire Coudray said Taiwan began preparing to fend off the virus on Dec. 31, 2019 after a health official saw a message on the PTT bulletin board warning that some patients in Wuhan exhibited signs of an unidentified type of pneumonia.

The Central Epidemic Command Center was then activated in January and adopted some 100 precautionary measures without imposing a total lockdown, the report said.    [FULL  STORY]

Kyodo News
Date: April 19, 2020

Taiwan's health authorities on Sunday said that 21 additional sailors of a navy fleet have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The Central Epidemic Command Center announced the previous day that three sailors of the three-ship fleet were confirmed as infected.

All the more than 700 members of the fleet, which returned this month from a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau, have been quarantined.

Navy Command Headquarters Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu apologized for the outbreak, while President Tsai Ing-wen expressed regret.    [FULL  STORY]

Military personnel required to wear masks all day to ensure Taiwan’s defense capability

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/19
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following Saturday's (April 18) news that three Taiwanese navy trainees had been confirmed with Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said that all military personnel in the country will be required to wear face masks for the entire day, starting immediately.

During the daily press conference for Taiwan's coronavirus update Saturday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that the three imported cases were trainees on the country's navy vessels. Since the new patients had spent time on board three different ships, more than 700 crew and trainees who were believed to have had contact with them have been placed under quarantine and will be tested for the virus.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/19/2020
By: Yeh Su-ping and Emerson Lim

Taipei, April 19 (CNA) Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), an epidemiologist by trade, feels social distancing will became a way of life amid the COVID-19 outbreak for at least another 18 months, the time it will take to develop a vaccine.

According to a transcript of Chen's interview with the Daily Telegraph8 posted on the Presidential Office's website Sunday, Chen believed mankind "won't get rid of this virus totally" because it is highly contagious with many mild or asymptomatic cases and can be transmitted through droplets and contaminated areas.

There is therefore a need to develop rapid diagnostics and anti-virals to treat the cases, with milder ones to be treated by private practitioners and severe ones to be treated in medical centers, he said.

"Maybe in one and a half years, we may have a vaccine… But before that, we definitely have to keep social distancing," he said.    [FULL  STORY]

• China has blocked the island from joining international organisations but on Friday officials from the UN agency gave credit to Taipei’s success in containing Covid-19
• Senior WHO official Michael Ryan told a press briefing that Taiwanese specialists were being brought into technical networks

South China Morning Post
Date: 18 Apr, 2020
By: Kinling Lo

The World Health Organisation has praised Taiwan’s efforts to contain Covid-19 as it faced growing pressure to incorporate the island into the global fight against the pandemic.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, told a regular briefing in Geneva on Friday that the authorities in Taiwan “deserve praise, they have mounted a very good public health response in Taiwan, and you can see that in the numbers. We have praised that, we have seen similar approaches taken in Hong Kong SAR and across China”.

He had been asked to comment about the island’s exclusion from the global body and said: “We are observing and watching and bringing Taiwanese colleagues into the technical networks so they can share their experience and they can both contribute their knowledge but also seek new knowledge from outside.”

It is rare for WHO officials to acknowledge the island’s success in containing the disease despite the growing controversy about its exclusion from the body.    [FULL  STORY]

Returnees with elderly, infants or chronically ill in household should stay at quarantine hotel

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — From April 21, travelers entering Taiwan from Southeast Asia must report the fact to the authorities, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced Saturday (April 18).

New arrivals with infants, elderly and the chronically ill in their household would then be directed to coronavirus quarantine hotels, the CECC said. While the number of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Taiwan has risen slowly, reaching 398 on Saturday, there is still concern about the situation in nearby countries, CNA reported.

If travelers entering Taiwan have visited a Southeast Asian country within the previous 14 days, they should fill out a health statement before boarding their flight. They should also ascertain whether their home is fit to spend two weeks of quarantine in, the CECC said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/18/2020
By: Chen Yun-yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 18 (CNA) A total of 60 Taiwanese nationals who had been stuck in the United Arab Emirates due to the COVID-19 pandemic returned to Taiwan on an Emirates flight Saturday.

The plane touched down at Taoyuan International Airport at around 7:11 p.m. after departing from Dubai International Airport in the morning.

After entering Taiwan, the passengers will have to undergo quarantine for 14 days, in compliance with government regulations on travelers returning from overseas.

Earlier on Saturday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said the Emirates flight was arranged through its representative office in the UAE to help bring Taiwanese nationals home.
[FULL  STORY]

‘ARTIST’S TRANSFORMATION’: Although Hsu’s thesis focused on herself, her adviser said that it met the school’s requirements as it was not an academic report

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 19, 2020
By: Rachel Lin, Lin Nan-ku and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Taiwanese singer and actress Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄), who in January obtained her master’s degree from Shih Hsin University, has drawn criticism for using herself as the subject of her graduate thesis.

The 45-year-old performer’s thesis — titled “The Artist’s Transformation Strategy in The Internet Age: Take the Star Vivian as an Example” — has been listed in Taiwan’s National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.

Political commentator Fan Li-da (范立達), a Shih Hsin alumnus, on Wednesday wrote on Facebook that although he respects Hsu, who he said is a hardworking entertainer, he was shocked that the university accepted her thesis.

“I find it really hard to believe that a thesis that takes the author herself as the subject of research was allowed by the instructor and the whole oral defense committee, and even passed the ethical review,” Fan said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 April, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

The foreign ministry says that it’s working to assist a Taiwanese national stranded in the African country of Mozambique. Taiwan’s embassy in the nearby country of eSwatini says that this Taiwanese citizen is safe.

 The foreign ministry says it learned about this citizen’s situation through a video posted online. The ministry says it reached out to friends and relatives in order to reach this person.
[FULL  STORY]