Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the nation's No. 2 life insurer, said it failed to sell an office building, Tun-nan Building (敦南大樓). on which it had set a minimum asking price of NT$6 billion ($177 million). "Nobody came to place bids, so we will reevaluate the project," company spokesman Chen Yen-ming said. Shin Kong Life hasn't set a date for a new auction. Shin Kong Life will continue with the planned auction in September of Jasper Villa (傑仕堡), a serviced apartment building located on Tienmu's Chungchen Road, Chen said. The company earlier set a reserve price of NT$5.4 billion for the building. The insurer's parent, Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), is selling assets to raise money for future insurance payouts and cover losses. The parent in July said it may post a net loss of NT$8.82 billion this year because of investment losses and falling interest rates.
RESTRICTIONS CONTINUE: People must wear a mask when outdoors, while employers should allow working from home or flexible hours, Chen Shih-chung said The Cabinet yesterday extended a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert until June 28 as the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported 211 locally transmitted cases and 26 deaths. The CECC on May 15 issued the level 3 alert for Taipei and New Taipei City, saying it would last until May 28. Four days later, it expanded the alert to the entire nation before announcing on May 28 that the alert period had been extended to Monday next week. The latest extension was announced following a disease prevention meeting at the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung
‘DO NOT STAY TOO LONG’: People would be required to provide personal contact information when entering traditional markets, and illegal vendors would be fined The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced five crowd control measures for traditional and night markets as it reported 335 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, eight backlogged cases and 36 deaths. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the 335 new local cases are 189 males and 146 females, adding that they developed symptoms from May 24 to Saturday. The eight backlogged cases are three men and five women aged 20 to 70, Chen said. They began experiencing symptoms on Tuesday and Wednesday, he said. As most of the pending cases due to delayed test results
PRIORITY GROUPS: A line of people were waiting at the Good Liver Clinic, apparently to get shots, while the CECC announced more priority groups for jabs The Taipei-based Good Liver Clinic is to be fined NT$2 million (US$72,028) after giving free COVID-19 vaccine shots to people not in groups eligible to receive them, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday. The Zhongshan District (中山)-based clinic was removed from the city’s list of vaccination venues and health officials would be investigated for giving 1,113 doses to the clinic, Huang told an afternoon news conference at Taipei City Hall. The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on Tuesday in an exclusive story citing an anonymous tip reported that a Taipei clinic was doling out unused vaccines. People in
PHASE 2: The firm’s CEO said that the results were good and the experimental vaccine safe, but added that hoped-for phase 3 trials would be expensive Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) yesterday reported positive results from an interim analysis of phase 2 trials for its COVID-19 vaccine, saying that the vaccine demonstrated high seroconversion rates and geometric mean titer (GMT) figures. A seroconversion rate is the percentage of participants in a trial displaying virus-specific immune memory after being given a vaccine, while the GMT measures the level of neutralizing antibody response, Medigen said. The experimental vaccine has a seroconversion rate of 99.8 percent and its GMT was 662 among the participants aged 20 to 89, while the gauges rose to 99.9 percent and 733 respectively in participants aged
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