WEATHER
Heat boosts water parks
Water parks nationwide have seen sales surge over the past few weeks thanks to persistent hot and sunny weather, park representatives said yesterday. Leofoo Water Park said there has been 35 percent year-on-year growth in the number of visitors since the beginning of this month, with average weekend arrivals reaching more than 30,000. “The summer heat has contributed greatly to the surge in business,” a park manager said, adding that he is expecting over 200,000 visitors over the summer vacation period. Likewise, Formosa Fun Coast and Janfusun Fancyworld said they have seen sudden increases in arrivals.
WEATHER
Tropical depression nears
A tropical depression near the Philippines may develop into a tropical storm over the weekend and affect Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The depression, around 350km south of Taiwan’s southernmost tip, is moving at 15kph in a west-northwestly direction, the bureau said. The depression is continuing to develop as it approaches Taiwan, forecasters said, adding that the depression may cross the Bashi Channel between the Philippines and Taiwan in the next few days and head to China. The depression’s outer rim may bring showers to southern and southeastern Taiwan until tomorrow, the bureau said, warning of high waves in coastal areas. Meanwhile, daily highs across the island are likely to fall between 33oC and 36oC this week, due to winds created by the depression.
HEALTH
Lectures address hepatitis B
About 10 percent of babies born to mothers with the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) will become hepatitis B carriers, even with vaccination, a pediatrician said yesterday. Since the hepatitis B vaccine does not guarantee full protection against infection, it is important to keep track of high-risk children, said Chen Hui-ling (陳慧玲), a pediatrician at National Taiwan University Hospital. Citing a study of about 2,000 children, Chen said that infants born to HBeAg mothers have a higher chance of becoming carriers, even if a rigorous vaccination scheme is implemented 24 hours after birth. The vaccination regimen involves further shots before the baby turns one, she said, reminding HBeAg parents to have their babies tested for the virus at the age of one. In an effort to help mothers learn more about hepatitis B, 10 free lectures will be held nationwide from next month until December, the Taiwan Children Liver Foundation said.
IMMIGRATION
Foreigner numbers rise
The number of foreign nationals in the country, excluding Chinese citizens, was 630,678 as of the end of last month, 42,000 more than a year ago, according to statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior yesterday. Of that number, 535,123 were on resident visas, while the others had visitor’s visas or other types of visas, the statistics showed. The number of foreign nationals working in Taiwan was 440,000, or 69.8 percent of the total, according to the tallies. The statistics showed that 42.2 percent of the foreign workers were from Indonesia, 22.2 percent from Vietnam and 19.4 percent from the Philippines. The number of Indonesian workers increased by 19,000 year-on-year, while the number from Vietnam rose by 11,000, and from the Philippines by 6,000, according to the statistics.
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