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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ HEALTH

Lack of staff worries CDC

Public health offices around the country are worried that there will be too few medical workers to carry out the A(H1N1) immunization program that began yesterday. A Centers for Disease Control (CDC) official said only 500 hospitals have registered so far to participate in the inoculation program, compared to 3,500 hospitals that signed up to offer free shots for seasonal flu. The CDC said 2.99 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine are being distributed, while it expects to give 12 million shots of the A(H1N1) vaccine by the Lunar New Year holiday next year. That has led authorities to conclude that the staff at the 500 hospitals are too few to carry out the program, the official said.



■ SOCIETY

Pillar collapse kills one

One worker was killed and four others injured in an accident yesterday at an airport mass rapid transit (MRT) line construction site in Sinjhuang (新莊), Taipei County. Firefighters said a 13m tall pillar that was under construction and four adjoining scaffolds collapsed onto the workers. There was no immediate explanation of why the pillar fell. The construction site is part of a 51km MRT line that will connect Taipei to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.



■ EVENTS

Kaohsiung zoo to reopen

Shoushan Zoo in Kaohsiung City will fully reopen to the public on Saturday to mark the zoo’s 30th anniversary, the city government said yesterday. The city’s Tourism Bureau said the zoo’s newly renovated African animals section, Taiwanese animals section, primates section, big birds section and a new petting farm for children would open for the first time since the zoo was closed for renovation in January. Through Nov. 15 admission to the zoo will be free, the bureau said.



■ EDUCATION

Yang named AAU chief

Henry Yang (楊祖佑), an academician at the Academia Sinica, has been elected as chairman of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a group of 62 top research universities in the US and Canada. Yang, who is now the chancellor of the University of California at Santa Barbara, took over the position on Oct. 20, The institute said in a statement on Saturday. Yang has been a member of the AAU’s executive committee since 2005. Yang, an expert in automotive and aeronautics engineering, was elected to the Academia Sinica in 1992. He is also a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.



■ ENVIRONMENT

Dredging proposal submitted

A proposal to dredge 65 million cubic meters of silt and soil from the nation’s riverbeds and reservoirs over the next year to reduce the risk of flooding will be discussed at an Executive Yuan meeting this week, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday. Improving water management has been high on the government’s priority list since Typhoon Morakot, he said. If the proposal is approved, the volume of silt and soil to be dredged annually will be two to three times the 20 million cubic meters dug up per year in the past. Most of the dredged-up sediment would be used in land reclamation projects or stored, Shih said. However, 10 million cubic meters will be flushed downstream as part of a reservoir desilting process and another 10 million cubic meters in uninhabited mountain areas will not be removed to help stabilize the slopes, he said.


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