The Executive Yuan has approved additions to the SARS Prevention and Relief Statute (
At the same time, the Cabinet yesterday moved to make up for the estimated shortfall of NT$100 billion in tax revenues caused by the SARS outbreak and the global economic downturn.
The Cabinet approved the issuing of government bonds and moved to allow the resulting deficit to be exempted from the legal amount that the government can borrow.
Under public-debt rules, the government can borrow up to 15 percent of its annual budget. The government deficit made up 14.99 percent of last year's budget and is projected to make up 17.04 percent of this year's budget.
The new proposals, included in the draft amendments of the SARS prevention act and approved by the Cabinet yesterday, will proceed to the Legislative Yuan for further review and final approval.
The Cabinet hopes the bill will be passed by the Legislature before the end of June, when the current legislative session is scheduled to end.
The Cabinet's bill, described as a temporary measure, is prescribed to be implemented between March 1 and Dec. 31 this year and can be extended, pending the approval of the legislature.
Addressing the press conference held after the weekly closed-door Cabinet-affairs meeting yesterday morning, Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"Since the SARS Prevention and Relief Act went into effect on May 2, certain changes need to be made in accordance with the development of the outbreak," Lin quoted Premier Yu Shyi-kun as saying.
Under the draft, those who distribute rumors or false information about the outbreak -- including members of the media -- would be subject to a jail term of up to three years or a fine of up to NT$500,000.
As the government is set to launch the 10-day nationwide temperature-check campaign starting Sunday, the draft would impose a fine of between NT$1,500 and NT$7,500 on those who refuse to have their temperature taken or wear face masks in designated areas, buildings or transportation system.
Those hoarding medical equipment or supplies and gouging customers on the sale of such items would face a sentence of between one year and seven years in prison and a fine of up to NT$5 million.
The draft ammendment would also impose a jail term of up to three years or a fine of up to NT$500,000 on those who deliberately spread the SARS virus if they are aware of their condition.
Those concealing their contact and medical histories would be subject to a fine of NT$150,000. The fine could increase to NT$500,000 if the concealment of the information led to the infection of other people.
In order to eliminate and avoid any inconsistencies between central and local government efforts, the draft stipulates that local governments should abide by the instructions put forth by the central government. Local governments should also set up anti-SARS teams in the areas under their jurisdiction, the bill says.
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