As of Monday, 69 locally acquired cases and 99 imported cases of dengue fever had been reported this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, advising the public to take proper measures to reduce the risk of a potential outbreak.
Five locally acquired cases of dengue fever were reported in Pingtung County last week, taking the total number of locally acquired cases to 53 this year in Pingtung alone, CDC official Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said, adding that in the same week 10 imported cases from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines were reported.
The agency also announced that five more cases of Japanese encephalitis (JE) have been confirmed, with all the infected patients experiencing the onset of the disease between June 10 and June 30.
“Four were hospitalized, one of whom is currently in intensive care, and one has since been discharged,” Chuang said.
As of yesterday, a total of nine confirmed cases of JE had been reported this year, according to the agency.
“However, compared with the number cases recorded in the same period last year, which was 26, this year’s nine is not that many,” Chuang said.
CDC physician Philip Yi-chun Lo (羅一鈞) said that pigs are the main host of the JE virus in Taiwan, so people who live near hog farms should take heed of the sanitary condition of their surroundings.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
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