The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday warned of a large-scale flu epidemic, including swine flu, taking place in the next two weeks.
The regular flu season usually begins at the end of October and ends sometime after the Lunar New Year, but CDC spokesman Lin Ting (林頂) said the CDC was expecting an early start to the flu season this year because of swine flu.
“At the moment, we have more than 9,000 flu cases every week and we expect to have an additional 10,000 flu patients, including cases of swine flu, in the coming weeks,” Lin said, urging the public to stay alert during the potential epidemic.
Lin said the CDC was confident ahead of the fight against the epidemic, adding that it had 10 million doses of flu vaccine ready to use and that an additional 5 million vaccine doses for swine flu were on the way, with the manufacturer promising that there would be at least 3.5 million doses ready by the end of December.
In a related development, summer classes at 14 schools in Taipei City have been forced to close temporarily because of suspected cases of swine flu and it was likely that more schools would be affected.
A meeting on Friday between the Department of Health and Taipei City Government’s Department of Education reached a consensus on continuing to follow the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for class closures, despite concerns that the rigid guidelines could result in a greater number of class closures when the new semester begins on Sept. 1.
Education Department Chief Secretary Lin Hsin-yao (林信耀) said the department would discuss closure guidelines with individual municipal schools and make changes if necessary.
The Ministry of Education’s closure guidelines state that an entire class should be suspended for five days if two or more cases that are suspected to be swine flu occur in the class within the space of three days.
Several school principals, such as Wang Deng-fang (王登方) of Cheng Kung High School and Lee Shih-wen (李世文) of Hoping High School, have expressed concerns about the guidelines, saying it would be difficult for teachers to make up for missed lessons.
“There would be large-scale class closures at schools if an epidemic happened and it would affect the quality of education,” Lee said.
Lin said the department was planning to establish an online study database for students to continue their studies if their classes are suspended.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS