The government is negotiating with Japanese officials to arrange the evacuation of Taiwanese passengers quarantined on a cruise ship off the coast of Yokohama, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
The Diamond Princess, with about 3,500 passengers and crew on board, was placed under a 14-day quarantine on Feb. 4, when it was scheduled to dock in Yokohama. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection on the ship have been rapidly increasing since then.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare yesterday said that 67 new cases of COVID-19 infection have been confirmed, bringing the total number of infected passengers and crew to 285.
Photo: EPA-EFE
While the US government is making arrangements to evacuate Americans from the ship, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said that it has also been negotiating with Japanese officials to conduct a similar operation.
Two Taiwanese passengers who had been confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Japan for treatment, it said.
“We have been discussing evacuation plans with Japanese authorities,” said Chen, who heads the CECC. “They have shown a responsible attitude, so we can trust them.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
He said a charter flight would be arranged to bring the Taiwanese home once officials agree on the details of the evacuation.
The evacuation from the cruise ship would not involve prioritizing vulnerable people, as was the case during an evacuation of Taiwanese from Wuhan, China, and all 20 passengers would be brought back, he said.
“We will arrange a China Airlines (中華航空) flight,” Chen said. “The Japanese authorities are very careful in handling the case, so the problem at hand is how to bring them back, rather than whether we can bring them back.”
Separately yesterday, the CECC said it has instructed healthcare professionals to test, when in doubt, people who have visited Singapore or Thailand 14 days prior to entering Taiwan for COVID-19 and who have a fever or sore throat.
The move is in response to the spread of the virus in the two countries, the CECC said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS