■Media
GIO asks help in SARS fight
The media could help fight severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) by res-ponsible reporting and by providing useful prevention information, Government Information Office (GIO) Deputy Director-General Hung Chun-chuan (洪瓊娟) said yesterday in a meeting with media professionals. Hung specifically mentioned television stations and their ability to quell signs of panic by broadcasting ways the public can avoid contracting SARS, including the benefits of hand washing and staying away from enclosed and crowded places. Hung also cautioned journalists to protect themselves from contamination while reporting on SARS.
■ Transportation
Taxi drivers to wear masks
In an effort to curb the spread of SARS, the Taipei City Government's Trans-portation Bureau yesterday called on the city's taxi drivers to wear masks and keep air circulating in the cab while transporting passengers. The city's
Motor Vehicles Office will provide taxi drivers with diluted bleach water at Chienkou, Chungshan,
Tachi and Reikuang taxi service centers to disinfect their cabs. The office will offer the lotion free of charge until the SARS outbreak is completely under control.
■ Entertainment
CAA to discuss SARS impact
The Council for Cultural Affairs will call a meeting tomorrow of leaders of cultural organizations to discuss ways of cushioning the impact of SARS on various cultural activities nationwide. Council Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) said many cultural activities have been canceled out of concerns that parti-cipants could contract or transmit the disease. Tchen said the council will help cultural centers with dis-infecting performance venues and offices. How-ever, there is no plan to give financial grants to dance troupes or theater com-panies that are unable to perform because of SARS, Tchen said. She said she hopes the problem will be under control by June, the peak season for cultural activities.
■ Police
Taipei officer falls ill
The first suspected SARS case in the police was reported yesterday after a Taipei officer, surnamed Wang, began to suffer fever and coughing last night. Wang has been quarantined at Neihu Cathay General Hospital. Since Wang is working at Tungtsun Police Substation of the Sungshan police station, all those working in the substation were recalled for tempera-ture checks. The substation's offices have also been disinfected and its work has been taken over temporarily by the Peace Preservation Corps.
■ Wildlife
Endangered birds found
In their largest haul of endangered species ever, CKS International Airport police seized 27 extremely rare birds earlier this month. The red-and-blue lories were found alongside other non-endangered birds in a shipment from Singapore on April 11, according to the Chinese-language media. It is not known whether police have detained anyone in connection with the case. As of 1990, only 2,000 red-and-blue lories remained in the wild. It is listed as an endangered species by the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). They can fetch more than NT$100,000 a head in Taiwan.
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