Department of Health Director-General Twu Shiing-jer (
"As the world is still uncertain about the pathogen of the malady, we thought it was too early to list it as a statutory communicable disease since there are certain legal procedures to follow," Twu said, adding that the pathogen and effective treatments for the disease have to be certain before making the declaration.
Twu, however, said that the health department should and will declare the malady a statutory communicable disease when it becomes necessary.
"Although the disease has not yet been listed as a statutory communicable disease, local governments shouldn't use this as an excuse to blame the central government for dillydallying in our handling of the matter, when in fact we've been tackling the matter with extra caution and alacrity," Twu said.
Twu made the remarks yesterday morning during the question-and-answer session in the legislature while responding to questions filed by DPP Legislator Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), KMT legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and KMT legislative leader Cheng Feng-shih (鄭逢時) over the government's handling of the global epidemic.
The director of the Taipei City Government's Bureau of Health, Chiu Shu-shih (
The move is seen as a challenge to the central government.
Twu, who admitted yesterday that SARS is a "serious communicable disease," said that the department notified medical institutions last Monday to report suspected cases to the health department, which will convey the information to a government task force composed of medical experts to evaluate the latest situation.
According to Twu, a total of 27 cases of SARS have been reported as of yesterday, including six probable cases and five suspected ones.
Responding to the Taipei City Government's call to list SARS as a statutory communicable disease, Twu yesterday said that he will invite Chiu to attend the meetings of the task force to keep abreast of the latest information on the disease.
"I know she's [Chiu] worried that the situation may get out of control. I'm sure she won't have any misgivings, misunderstandings or misjudgments if she obtains sufficient information about the disease," Twu said.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said that the Cabinet will totally respect the professionalism of the health department and how it has been handling the matter.
"Since it's a relatively new disease, I can understand that many people have different opinions,Yu said.
"Since the health issue is not my metier, I totally respect the health department's handling of the matter," Yu said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching