WEATHER
Cold front to stretch south
Temperatures could drop to 8?C or 9?C in areas north of Chiayi County this week as the nation experiences the first cold spell of the winter, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Before the cold snap, the mercury is to rise gradually today to highs of 23?C to 25?C across the country today, which is to be the warmest day of the week. However, a weak cold front will raise the chances of precipitation in the north later in the day, the bureau said. The first cold wave could arrive later tomorrow, pushing the mercury gradually down in the night, the bureau said. The largely dry cold air mass could send temperatures down to 8?C in rural, open areas from Yilan County to Chiayi County during the early morning on Wednesday and Thursday, forecasters said.
SOCIETY
Suicidal man detained again
A man threatening to kill himself in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei yesterday morning was detained by police and taken to a hospital for treatment. The 48-year-old man, surnamed Chang (張), was noticed by police and security guards at about 10am. Officers took him to the Jieshou Police Station and then to a branch of the Taipei City Hospital. Police said that they found two 50cm-long knives in Chang’s bag. They said that once at the police station, Chang repeatedly said that he wanted to kill himself. It is the second time that Chang, who according to his family suffers from a delusional disorder, has been caught trying to kill himself in front of the Presidential Office Building.
HEALTH
Dengue fever cases decline
The onset of colder weather has led to a decline in dengue fever cases, the Centers for Disease Control said on Saturday. A total of 763 new cases were confirmed between Dec. 2 and Wednesday, compared with 885 over the previous eight-day period, extending a steady trend of decline that has been occurring since the middle of last month, the agency said. However, the centers said the public needs to continue draining water containers and clearing up possible mosquito vector breeding sites, especially in indoor areas. As of Monday last week, there had been 14,686 cases of dengue fever nationwide this year, compared with only 755 during the same period last year, the agency said. Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease spread by mosquitoes.
HEALTH
NHI rule changes unveiled
Up to 800,000 people are expected to benefit when the threshold is significantly raised for levying supplementary premiums on non-salary income for National Health Insurance (NHI), the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. The change, which is to take effect on Jan. 1, means that low-to-medium income households will not need to pay supplementary premiums if their non-salary income — including interest, stock dividends and income from professional practices — is below the minimum wage. The current monthly minimum wage is NT$19,273, and is set to be raised to NT$20,008 on July 1 next year. That is a significant relaxation from the current rule, which stipulates extra fees for any household with non-salary income of more than NT$5,000. Another change is an exemption for bonuses worth up to four months of actual payroll amounts. The highest monthly pay is set at NT$180,000 for paying health premium.
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
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