Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/07/2020
By: Su Mu-chun, Chao Li-yen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taichung, Aug. 7 (CNA) A court has ordered two traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and one medicine dealer based in Taichung to be detained and held incommunicado for their part in a heavy metal poisoning case that has left at least eight people ill.

The Taichung District Court granted a request by prosecutors to detain Sheng Tang Chinese Medicine Clinic chief practitioner Lu Shih-ming (呂世明), Jin Fu Chinese Medicine Clinic practitioner Hung Chang-hung (洪彰宏), and Ou Kuo-liang (歐國樑), head of the Hsin Lung Medicine Co.

The trio are suspected of violating pharmaceutical laws because of their involvement in the lead poisoning of at least eight people, including former Taichung City Council Speaker Chang Hung-nien (張宏年), his wife, his son and his daughter, the court ruled.

It said the trio had to be detained because they could destroy or falsify evidence or collude with each other to falsify testimony were they to be released.    [FULL  STORY]

SAFEGUARDING PUBLIC HEALTH: While vaping has become increasingly popular, new legislation would widely outlaw tobacco products for e-cigarettes

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 08, 2020
By: Yang Yuan-ting / Staff reporter

Health Promotion Administration (HPA) Deputy Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) yesterday said his agency was seeking to amend the Tobacco Hazard Prevention and Control Act (菸害防制法) to ban the import and sale of heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes.

During the two-month preview period for the draft amendments, which ended at the end of last month, the HPA received more than 4,000 letters from members of the public expressing conflicting opinions on the proposed bans.

Letters from tobacco companies mostly criticized proposals to enlarge the warnings printed on cigarette packages to 85 percent of the front surface area and to raise the legal age for smoking from 18 to 20, Wu said.

The larger the warnings are, the less effective the tobacco companies’ advertisements would be, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/06/2020
By: Flor Wang and Chao Li-yan

Taipei, Aug. 6 (CNA) A second Taichung-based traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic was ordered to suspend its business on Thursday after municipal authorities found it had allegedly prescribed drugs laced with heavy metals to patients, after another clinic was earlier found to have committed the potentially dangerous act.

The suspension came after Taichung health officials and law enforcement agents on Thursday searched the Jiu Fu Chinese Medicine Clinic (九福中醫) and the Sheng Tang Chinese Medicine Clinic (盛唐中醫)– the first TCM clinic in Taichung where its chief practitioner Lu Shih-ming (呂世明) was found to have been involved in the illegal practice.

Jiu Fu was ordered to suspend operations for one month and pay a fine of NT$300,000 (US$10,000), while Sheng Tang was told to close its shop for two months and pay a fine of NT$500,000.

Lu, who is being investigated by prosecutors, was fined NT$100,000 for not recording the parts of the prescriptions containing heavy metals in the patients' medical records, in violation of Taiwan's Physicians Act.    [FULL  STORY]

BENEFITING THE DISADVANTAGED: French-born Priest Yves Moal said that he had no problems securing funding for the new store in just two days

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 07, 2020
By: Hua Meng-ching and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里) on Wednesday celebrated the reopening of a second-hand store and redistribution center for disadvantaged and poor residents after the store burned down in February.

The center was founded by Catholic priest Father Yves Moal.

Speaking at the ceremony, Moal said the successful reconstruction of the store was possible “due to the generosity of the Taiwanese people,” which had not changed since he arrived in Taiwan as a 25-year-old.

Due to the public’s concern for the less fortunate, the amount necessary for rebuilding the facility had been raised within just two days, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan international
Date: 06 August, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Catholic Father Yves Moal (right) celebrated his 80th birthday on Wednesday.[/caption] Father Yves Moal has received the best gift he could imagine for the 80th birthday- a second-hand store run by his Catholic church in the eastern county of Hualien has risen again from the ashes.  

On Wednesday, a Catholic church in Hualien had a simple plaque-unveiling ceremony for its second-hand store.

The store, destroyed by a fire in February, sells clothes, shoes, and toys. The second-hand items are important for the church, because the revenue is spent on caring for mentally challenged children.      [FULL  STORY]

Reuters
Date: August 6, 2020
By: Cate Cadell, Ben Blanchard

BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) – China on Thursday threatened to take countermeasures over a trip to Taiwan by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, as the Chinese-claimed island geared up for its highest-level U.S. official visit in four decades.

The visit, which begins on Sunday, adds to tensions between Beijing and Washington over everything from trade and human rights to the novel coronavirus pandemic. China calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue in its bilateral ties with the United States.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing in Beijing that any attempt to deny or challenge the “one China” principle, which states that Taiwan is part of China, would end in failure.

“China will take strong countermeasures in response to the U.S. behaviour,” Wang said, referring to Azar’s visit.    [FULL  STORY]

Former ally's central government blocks Taiwanese supplies from reaching Malaita Province, China calls donation 'illegal'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/06
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Thursday (Aug. 6) that Taiwan's donation of anti-pandemic supplies to a province of the Solomon Islands has been seized by the central government of the South Pacific nation.

Despite the Solomon Islands' decision to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan and switch ties to China last year, the Taiwanese government has managed to stay on good terms with Malaita and has donated masks, soap, thermometers, and rice to the province. Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani has expressed gratitude for the gesture, referring to Taiwan as a country.

The Solomon Islands' government reacted by reprimanding Suidani for violating the "one-China policy." The Chinese embassy in the Solomon Islands also cried foul, saying Suidani's acceptance of relief supplies was "illegal" and "undermined the integrity of China's sovereignty," and it demanded that local governments in the archipelago country avoid any official contact with Taiwan, reported New Talk.

During a regular press briefing on Thursday, MOFA official Chang Chun-yu (張均宇), who specializes in Pacific affairs, confessed that many of the pandemic donations to Malaita have been seized by the Solomon Islands' central government. He said this has upset the people of the province, as some of them urgently need supplies, according to CNA.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/06/2020
By: Yu Hsiang, Chen Chih-chung,
Chang Ming-hsun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 6 (CNA) Taiwan's government will not test all passengers arriving in the country for COVID-19 because its current 14-day mandatory quarantine has worked well to keep the virus at bay, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said Thursday.

Su was the latest official to dismiss a call for everyone entering Taiwan from overseas to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, after officials from the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) made similar comments over the past few weeks, as Taiwan continues to see new imported cases, as well as a few cases with unknown sources that health experts said could have been contracted domestically.

The call for universal testing has been made in recent weeks by health experts and mayors worried that people who have the virus but are asymptomatic are entering Taiwan and that this could lead to community infections.

They argue that Taiwan's current measures — requiring all passengers to undergo 14-day mandatory quarantine and foreign nationals to also provide negative test reports three days before their departure for Taiwan — are not enough to stop infections from entering the country. They believe universal testing could identify asymptomatic carriers and reduce the chance of community transmissions.    [FULL  STORY]

NEW CASE REPORTED: A man who returned from South Africa on a flight with the nation’s 460th and 461st cases has now tested positive for the disease

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 07, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that there is no need to test all arrivals to the nation for COVID-19, a policy the Executive Yuan supports.

The center reported one new imported case, bringing the nation’s tally of confirmed cases to 477.

The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 60s who on July 25 returned from South Africa, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman.

The man had returned to Taiwan on the same flight as cases Nos. 460 and 461, reported on July 27, Chuang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Daste: 05 August, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

All healthy cattle on the outlying island of Kinmen have been vaccinated for lumpy skin disease. That’s the word from the Council of Agriculture on Wednesday.

Kinmen is famous for its beef products. But the island has recently seen an outbreak of lumpy skin disease, a disease that affects cattle and may be fatal. Last month, the county culled many cattle found with or suspected to have the disease. Now, a total of 6,342 healthy head of cattle have been vaccinated at 472 farms across the island.    [FULL  STORY]