The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday ordered that all hostess clubs and dance halls suspend operations, effective immediately, as it reported one new case of COVID-19 in the nation.
Preventing community transmission is an important part of the nation’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is deputy head of the center, said at the center’s daily media briefing in Taipei.
The center also called for cooperation from the local governments of the nation’s 22 cities and counties, saying that it would need their assistance in enforcing the closures.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
The center reported just one new case of COVID-19, while the number of deaths in Taiwan from the novel coronavirus remained at five.
The new case — the nation’s 380th — is a man in his 20s who is a roommate of the nation’s 322nd case, the center said.
He is asymptomatic and went into home isolation on Monday last week, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said, adding that the man was tested for the virus on Monday.
Health authorities have disinfected the university attended by the 322nd and 380th cases, including dormitories and public areas, said Chen, who heads the center.
The school has adopted distance learning until Friday next week, he added.
Local media reports identified the school as National Taiwan Normal University.
The university yesterday said in a statement that it on Wednesday received a notice from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of a second confirmed case of COVID-19 at the school.
Following notification of its first confirmed case late on Monday last week, the university said that it immediately took the necessary precautions and disinfected spaces that had been visited by the 322nd case.
The entire campus was disinfected over last week’s four-day Children’s Day and Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend, the university said, adding that the condition of the 322nd case has improved.
The 380th case is not enrolled in courses at other schools, nor are students from other schools enrolled in any of the classes he attended, it said.
The center has been provided with information about the students and teachers the two cases might have been in contact with on campus to cooperate with contact investigations, the university said, adding that it would continue to cooperate with the CDC and the Ministry of Education.
Under the education ministry’s guidelines, in-person classes at a university campus must be suspended for 14 days in the event of two or more confirmed cases of COVID-19.
As it had already begun school-wide distance learning on Monday, the suspension of on-campus classes is to end on Friday next week, the university said.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS