HEALTH
H1N1 virus not detected
The influenza A (H1N1) virus that has left more than 100 people dead in India since last month has not been detected in animals in Taiwan, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. The flu strain, which carries both avian and swine influenza virus genes, has not been found in migrant birds or in any fowl in the nation, said Huang Kuo-ching (黃國青), deputy director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine. “We have consistently kept a close eye on avian flu,” Huang said. “Despite the presence of the H1N1 virus in poultry, it is not the strain that has caused the outbreak in India.” The new strain of H1N1 virus, most commonly known as swine flu, caused a global pandemic in 2009 and has shown signs of returning in India. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare confirmed over the weekend that there have been 708 confirmed swine flu cases nationwide since last month and that 132 people have died. In the Delhi area alone, 154 H1N1 cases have been reported, with four deaths, the Indian ministry said.
EDUCATION
NTU announces candidates
National Taiwan University (NTU) on Sunday announced a shortlist of six candidates in its presidential search that started in June last year. They include National Science Council Minister Cyrus Chu (朱敬一), dean of the NTU College of Medicine Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) and the former president of the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yang Yeong-bin (楊永斌). NTU vice president Lo Ching-hua (羅清華), former NTU vice president Bau Tzong-ho (包宗和) and former dean of the NTU College of Management Hung Mao-wei (洪茂蔚) are the others. A successor is being sought for NTU president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔), who will step down on June 22 when his term is due to end, NTU said.
WEATHER
Temperatures set to drop
An approaching cold air mass is expected to send temperatures across the nation plunging today, especially in northern areas, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Temperatures could drop today by about 10°C in the north to between 13°C and 17°C, but the cold weather could begin to ease off again by Thursday, the bureau said. Today and tomorrow, temperatures of between 15°C and 20°C can be expected in central areas, and 14°C and 23°C degrees in southern areas of the nation, according to the bureau. It also forecast increased chances of rain in northern and central Taiwan until the weekend.
TRAVEL
Holiday travelers increase
The number of people traveling to and from Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday showed a significant increase this year, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. More than 1.2 million travelers were recorded between Feb. 8 and Sunday, marking a 10 percent increase from a year earlier, according to figures released by the agency. The highest single-day figure was on Sunday, with a passenger volume of 143,344 at airports and seaports, said Lin Hung-chieh (林弘傑), an official with the agency’s Border Affairs Corps. Of that number, more than 109,000 were at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, according to the figures. The average number of travelers exceeded 100,000 per day over the Lunar New Year 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
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