■ Unions
No strike on election day
Responding to media reports of a possible strike by Chunghwa Telecom Workers Union (CTWU) members on election day, CTWU president Chung Hsu-chung (張緒中) said the labor union would not initiate a strike on Saturday and disrupt the poll. "We will not take to the streets on election day," Chung said. "I can guarantee that if anyone tries to hamper voting on the day, it won't be by Chunghwa Telecom workers." Prior to the union's rally on Sunday, at which more than 17,000 workers passed a resolution to strike, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications warned that those who destroy telecommunications facilities will be breaking the law. Chung said the ministry's allegation was baseless. "We never threatened to destroy facilities on election day and we will not act out the script they wrote for us," he said. Chung said the "misleading reports" in some newspapers may be part of a smear campaign against the union.
■ Health
Taipei warned of virus
Enterovirus infections in Taipei City have increased since the middle of last month, an official from the city's Department of Health said yesterday, adding that a total of 673 cases were reported by local clinics and hospitals during the period from Nov. 16-29. The figure shows a major growth compared with the 237 cases reported in the same period of last year, Tsai Yi-chen (蔡宜真) said, quoting data compiled by the department. Tsai said schools reported that a total of 19 classes of students have been forced to stay home due to the outbreak during the two-week period and as of yesterday, four classes were still closed. However, Tsai said this year's outbreak has mainly been caused by the less severe Coxsackie viruses rather than the more serious Enterovirus 71. The cases are lasting longer than in past years though and therefore, the public should stay alert and pay attention to personal and environmental hygiene to prevent infection, he said.
■ Education
Educators meet in Hsinchu
The 7th East Asia Education Forum will be held in Hsinchu on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, with 60 delegates from Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The forum, organized by the National Teachers' Association, will discuss the status of teachers and educational reform. The forum will also review Taiwan's educational climate by soliciting the opinions of overseas delegates, the organizers said. The organizing committee will also familiarize delegates with Chinese culture with a visit to the National Palace Museum in Taipei as well as Taiwanese history with trips to various places of historical importance in Hsinchu, they added.
■ Business
Conference on textiles held
A three-day textile conference organized by government and industry representatives to discuss various textile-related topics opened in Taipei yesterday. The Technical Textile Conference and Exhibition seeks to discuss health, medical care, warning labels and digital watermarks issues in the textile industry. A total of 32 panel discussions will be held during the three-day meeting, which will also feature 164 of the latest innovations in textile products developed by Taiwanese firms. Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said that Taiwan's industrial-use textile production accounts for only 2 percent of world's total output.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
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