Straits Times
Date: May 5, 2020
By: Lim Ruey Yan

Even Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou's restaurant has not been spared by the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday (May 1), the Mr J French-Italian Restaurant announced on Facebook that its last day of operation will be on May 31.

The restaurant, which is located on the grounds of Taipei Medical University, also reminded customers that the institution is restricting access to the campus due to the coronavirus pandemic. It said customers should inform the security guards that they are going to the restaurant so that staff from the restaurant can go to the entrance to receive them.

The eatery, which opened in 2007, was featured in Secret. The 2007 movie starred Chou, Gwei Lun-mei and Anthony Wong, and was also the directorial debut of Chou, now 41.

The restaurant has many items linked to Secret, including the piano and the desk seen in the movie. It plays Chou's songs in the background and has posters of the star on the wall    [FULL  STORY]

Sputnik International
Date: 03.05.2020

A powerful 5.9-magnitude quake struck eastern Taiwan at 11:24 a.m. local time, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The epicentre of the natural disaster was located 70.7 kilometers northeast of Taitung County Hall, at a depth of 40.4 km, according to CWB data.    [FULL  STORY]

Zero Hedge
Date: 05/02/2020
By: Tyler Durden

President Trump is going all-in on antagonizing China as a crux of his 2020 campaign strategy (since clearly a large segment of his base, and many undecided voters, blame China for unleashing the virus on the world whether it came from a lab or not). And in keeping with the stepped-up antagonisms – since President Trump's agreement to "cooperate" with President Xi to fight the virus is 100% meaningless – the US late Friday tweeted its support for Taiwan's participation in the UN.

The tweet, sent by the US Mission to the UN, said the 193-member organization should allow space for "all voices" and welcome "a diversity of views and perspectives" to promote human rights. "Barring #Taiwan from setting foot on UN grounds is an affront not just to the proud Taïwanese people, but to UN principles," it continued. It was retweeted by US Ambassador Kelly Craft, who succeeded Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the UN.    [FULL  STORY]

Firefighters found two adults tightly embracing three children in a corner of the burning house

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/03
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A fire broke out in Kaohsiung on Sunday morning that took the lives of five family members, CNA reported.

Kaohsiung City’s Fire Bureau received a report around 7 a.m. that a townhouse on Dalian Street was on fire. A total of 40 fire trucks and more than 90 firefighters arrived at the scene where they found smoke coming out from between the second and fifth floors.

The house owner, Lai Wen-de (賴文德), is a former president of Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital and a cardiologist at the hospital, according to the report. After Lai and his wife ran out of the burning house, they told firefighters two adults and three children were still on the fourth floor.

Firefighters retrieved five people from the house after 8 a.m. and rushed them to hospital, where they were pronounced dead, according to the report. When found by firefighters, the two adults were tightly embracing the three children in a corner of the apartment.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/03/2020
By: Wang Hung-kuo, Sunrise Huang and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, May 3 (CNA) New Taipei City will start to gradually re-open shuttered public venues from Monday after a 45-day shutdown to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) announced Sunday.

New Taipei, the most populous municipality in Taiwan, shut down indoor public venues, including sports centers, libraries and museums on Mar. 20, after it was found that a person infected with COVID-19 had visited one of them prior to testing positive.

However, as Taiwan has only recorded three new cases in the past week and New Taipei has seen no new cases for 13 days, the city has decided on a two-phase re-opening of public venues, according to a statement.

The first phase, which begins on Monday, will see the re-opening of public libraries, sports centers, activities centers and museums, the statement said, with some exceptions.    [FULL  STORY]

PLAYING THE ODDS: A CECC official said that if healthy and infected people are wearing masks, their risk of viral transmission is reduced to about 1 to 2 percent

Taipei Times
Date: May 04, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Wearing masks greatly reduces the risk of spreading COVID-19, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said.

Chang made the remark at the center’s daily news conference on Saturday.

“Many people have asked why several confirmed cases in Taiwan did not spread the virus to other people,” Chang said, pointing to an illustration depicting a healthy person and an infected person interacting in possible scenarios.

He said that the risk of infection is high if both are not wearing masks, but if only the healthy person wears a mask, the risk of contracting COVID-19 through respiratory droplets is greatly reduced — possibly by as much as 50 to 80 percent.    [FULL  STORY]

Sputnik International
Date: 02.05.2020
By: Tim Korso

China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and vehemently opposes any attempts to suggest that the autonomous territory is a sovereign state. Nonetheless, 15 countries around the world have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, while the US is engaged in trade with the self-governing island.

The US sparked a harsh response from China after its UN mission, in a tweet, called on countries to bring Taiwan back to the United Nations. The mission argued that its exclusion allegedly goes against the values of the international body.

The tweet came in support of a series of tweets by the Department of State's Bureau of International Organisation Affairs, which insisted that Taiwan could share its experience in fighting the coronavirus outbreak if it had a voice in global bodies, such as the World Health Organisation. The island was stripped of its spot in the WHO, along with other global bodies, after it was recognised as a part of China with, Beijing taking its place.

The tweets by US diplomats were met with "strong indignation and firm opposition" from China. Its mission to the United Nations slammed the statements as "a serious violation" of the General Assembly resolution that granted Mainland China its place in the international body and of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.    [FULL  STORY]

rthk.hk
Date:\ 2020-05-03

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and expressed outrage over a push to include the self-ruled island in the United Nations. Image: Shutterstock

China has condemned a US tweet backing Taiwan's push for participation at the United Nations as the global body works with its 193 member states to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Beijing's diplomatic mission to the UN expressed "strong outrage and firm opposition" to a message on Friday by the United States calling Taiwan's exclusion an "affront" to UN principles.

The self-ruled island has been held up as a model in fighting the virus.

Fewer than 500 cases have been detected in Taiwan despite its proximity to the Chinese mainland where the outbreak began.    [FULL  STORY]

7 factors: vigilance, masks, experience, talent, speed, transparency, and affordable healthcare

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/02
By:  Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A coronavirus pandemic was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, but the number of confirmed cases worldwide had shot up to more than 3 million just one and a half months later.

As of May 1, we are in unprecedented terrain, with five countries having reported more than 10,000 deaths and the number of confirmed global deaths passing 230,000.

Despite being just 130 kilometers from China, where the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) first broke out, Taiwan has thus far managed to control the pandemic. As of May 1, Taiwan had gone 19 consecutive days without seeing a new local case.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/02/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) Saint Christopher's Church in Taipei distributed hundreds of medical face masks to migrant fishermen in Yilan fishing ports on Saturday after receiving a donation from Taiwan's foreign ministry, according to an assistant parish priest.

Volunteers and priests from the church handed out 600 masks and about 40 small bottles of hand sanitizer to migrant fishermen in the county's major fishing port of Nanfang'ao and nearby Wushi Harbor, Father Gioan Tran Van Thiet told the Central News Agency that day.

Photo courtesy of Father Gioan Tran Van Thiet of Taipei's Saint Christopher's Church

The masks and hand sanitizer were part of a donation of 3,000 masks and 11 one-liter hand sanitizer bottles from Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) given to Stella Maris chaplains and coordinators in the country that serve migrant fishermen, Thiet said.

"Taiwan can help, which means no one is excluded. That means even migrant workers in the fishing industry, who are usually sidelined from mainstream society, receive support from MOFA," Thiet said.
[FULL  STORY]