“To save others, you must save yourself first,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday as he defended the government’s decision to ban exports of N95 respirators and other masks for one month.
To ensure local supply of masks amid fears that the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) could spread domestically, the Customs Administration on Friday banned exports of all masks made of woven materials until Feb. 23.
The ban came in the wake of the worsening 2019n-CoV outbreak, as China first tried to conceal the disease, and has performed poorly in trying to contain it, Su said.
Photo: Chiu Shu-yu, Taipei Times
The government’s decision has drawn criticism, with media personality Joyce Huang (黃智賢) calling Su “inhumane” on Facebook for formulating the ban.
However, the premier yesterday again condemned China’s repeated sidelining of Taiwan at the WHO, and barring its participation unless it acknowledges Beijing’s “one China” principle, making it unable to share its knowledge, information and experience with the world.
As disease prevention knows no boundaries, Beijing’s boycott is wrong, regrettable and exposes China’s willfulness and irrationality, he added.
Meanwhile, the Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday warned patrons and staff of Jin Bali Grand Ballroom (金芭黎舞廳) in Kaohsiung’s Lingya District (苓雅) that they might have been exposed to the virus, as a Taiwanese businessman in his 50s, who was one of two people on Friday confirmed to have 2019n-CoV, was at the club on Wednesday from 4pm to 6pm.
As the man had not worn a mask, the center said it wanted to alert people who might have come into close contact with him to monitor their health for 14 days.
If they develop a fever or start coughing or hyperventilating, they should immediately call the tollfree 1922 hotline and list the places they have visited, it said.
Kaohsiung Department of Health specialist Pan Chao-ying (潘炤穎) said a female employee of the ballroom developed symptoms of a respiratory infection yesterday morning and sought treatment, adding that the ballroom closed yesterday for at least two days and has begun disinfecting its premises.
The businessman would be fined NT$300,000 for violating the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) by not reporting that he had symptoms of an upper respiratory infection when he arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport on Tuesday, Pan said.
The health of people that the man has been in contact with since his return would be monitored until Feb. 5, Pan added.
The other case confirmed on Friday is a Chinese woman who is part of an 18-person tour group from Wuhan.
The rest of the group were scheduled to leave Taiwan yesterday, Tourism Bureau division head Liu Shih-min (劉士銘) said.
As of 3pm yesterday, 193 cases of people displaying pneumonia-like symptoms have been reported, of which three had been confirmed to have 2019-nCoV, while the virus has been ruled out in 64 cases and 126 people remain under quarantine, the center said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS