NEW OFFERINGS: Several freeway service areas still boosted revenue by selling popular products from South Korea or introducing well-known restaurants

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 05, 2020
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

The launch of the Sibin Expressway (Highway No. 61), bad weather and intensive news coverage

about a coronavirus outbreak in China contributed to a decrease in the number of visitors to freeway service areas during this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, the Freeway Bureau said yesterday.

A total of 1,452,988 people visited 14 freeway service areas during the seven-day national holiday, down 8.89 percent from the same period last year, with revenue at the stops sliding 4.77 percent to NT$218.99 million (US$7.25 million), bureau data showed.

“The final stretch of the Sibin Expressway was open for traffic before the Lunar New Year holiday, which helped divert some traffic away from freeways,” Toll and Service Division Director Liu Feng-liang (劉逢良) said. “News outlets started providing extensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in China and how it affected the nation on the first day of the holiday, and the weather turned bad on the second day of the holiday.”

“All of these factors contributed to a significant decrease in visitors to freeway service areas,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 03 February, 2020
By: Leslie LiaoP

resident Tsai Ing-wen said Monday that Taiwan’s inclusion in United Nations organizations is a matter of public health. She was speaking with the chairperson of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan, Giuseppe Izzo.

The president was talking about the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Civil Aeronautics Organization (ICAO). She says that both organizations have barred Taiwan from participating on political grounds.

The opposition to Taiwan’s participation comes from the People’s Republic of China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory even though the two sides are ruled separately. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, while Taiwan is not.    [FULL  STORY]

Confusion over Taiwan’s status has seen flights cancelled as part of broader bans on China traffic.

The Diplomat
Date: February 04, 2020
By: Shannon Tiezzi   

With the coronavirus epidemic continuing to spread rapidly, particularly within China, major airlines around the world are cutting off service to the country. According to a count by Bloomberg, as of February 2, Australia’s Qantas Airways, Air Canada, Air France, Germany’s Lufthansa, Air India, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, and the United States’ Delta Air Lines — among many others — have all suspended or restricted flights to and from China.

Italy and Vietnam both banned flight connections to Taiwan as well.

As Reuters explained, Italy’s ban on Taiwan flights came about because the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies Taiwan as part of China. Even though the island is independently governed, the government in Beijing claims it as part of the People’s Republic, and has long blocked Taiwan’s participation in international bodies, even nonpolitical ones like the WHO.

The WHO recently classified the new coronavirus outbreak as a “global health emergency” but even then, the most recent travel advice posted on its website “advises against the application of any restrictions of international traffic.”    [FULL  STORY]

 

Taipei leaders pledge to crack down on those trying to sell masks, hand sanitizers in crane games

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei's leaders have condemned people trying to sell surgical masks and disinfectants in claw machines and are warning of swift punishment for those caught in the act.

As face masks and hand sanitizers remain in short supply amid fears over the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, Taipei City Councilor Chen I-chun (陳怡君) has spotted crane games hawking the items. She has asked the Taipei City Office of Commerce, Taipei Department of Health, and other relevant units to crack down on vendors.

Chen Yi-ting (陳怡婷), head of the Taipei Department of Health, said that if a hand sanitizer product has a medical equipment license number, it is considered medical equipment. If such an item were placed in a crane game, it would constitute a violation of Article 27 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法) and would result in a fine ranging between NT$30,000 (US$989) and NT$2 million in accordance with Article 92 of the same law.

Chen said that she had investigated more than 40 claw machine shops in Taipei and found that many of them were selling antibacterial hand wipes, reported Liberty Times. She said that given the insatiable demand for disinfectant products, she suspects that many of these claw machine shops are hoarding the products and selling them at exorbitant prices.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/03/2020
By: Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Feb. 3 (CNA) Faced with continued shortages of surgical masks amid fears of the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, Taiwan's government will soon institute a registration system to ration the supply of masks to two per person per week.

Under the system, Taiwanese residents will have to present their national health insurance (NHI) cards to buy face masks at more than 6,000 NHI contracted drugstores or pharmacies, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced Monday.

The policy, set to begin Feb. 6, will allow each person to buy two masks a week at a price of NT$5 per mask, and once an individual makes a purchase, it will be recorded to prevent the same person from buying other masks the same week.

The government began requisitioning the 4 million surgical masks produced by domestic manufacturers every day on Jan. 31, with 2.6 million masks distributed to consumers and 1.4 million channeled to medical workers and people involved in prevention efforts.    [FULL  STORY]

COMPLAINT: The KMT should begin its reform efforts by allowing any member to run for the chairpersonship, said Chang Ya-chung, who does not qualify for the race

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 04, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday registered for the

party’s chairmanship by-election on March 7 to replace former chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).

Wu resigned last month after the party’s defeats in the Jan. 11 elections.

Chiang, who won re-election for a third term last month, told reporters at KMT headquarters in Taipei that many people have questioned whether the party should “re-discuss or adjust” its cross-strait stance.

“If I am elected party chairperson, the necessary discussion or debate are things that should be done,” he said. “Every proposition, if I am the party chairperson, I would need to respect.”
[FULL  STORY]

Global Times
Date: 2020/2/3
By Wang Qi 

Observers in the Chinese mainland said that Tsai Ing-wen's "repetitive" political manipulation is doomed to fail, after the Taiwan regional leader cried out for Taiwan to join the World Health Organization (WHO) but snubbed the mainland regarding medical cooperation and banned mask exports amid the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak. 

Tsai made her voice public on Twitter since Thursday, saying that "we hope that the WHO will not exclude Taiwan for political reasons," and "Taiwan's absence from the WHO creates a serious gap in the global network." 

According to reports, Tsai's comments received support from certain anti-China politicians such as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in the US, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In a reply to an email from the WHO to the Global Times on Sunday, the organization denied that Taiwan was excluded from the world health network which was indicated by Tsai, saying the organization is collaborating closely with Taiwan authorities through the International Health Regulations (IHR) mechanism in response to the 2019-nCoV outbreak.    [FULL  STORY]

Petition makes plea for Taiwan to contribute to coordinated international response to Wuhan virus outbreak

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/02
By}: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A White House petition calling on the U.S. government to support Taiwan’s joining the World Health Organization (WHO) surpassed the required threshold of 100,000 signatures within just three days.

The petition, posted on Jan. 30, has garnered 128,039 signatures as of 3 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 2). The Trump administration is required to issue an official response to the request in 60 days.

The petition was launched by someone with the initials C.C. It urges Washington to “take action supporting Taiwan for joining WHO,” citing the island nation’s high-quality medical technology and abundant experience in healthcare.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/02/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Feb. 2 (CNA) Taiwanese researchers have successfully extracted a sample of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which could eventually lead to the development of a vaccine, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Friday.

The virus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.

As of Sunday morning, China had recorded 14,380 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 304 deaths, while nearly 160 confirmed cases have been reported in other countries around the world, including 10 in Taiwan.

According to Chen, the sample was extracted from the respiratory tract of one of the 10 patients in Taiwan, making Taiwan the fourth country, after China, Australia and Japan, to successfully isolate a sample.    [FULL STORY]