The government has donated 500,000 masks to Canada, while at least 120,000 Taiwanese have joined a humanitarian aid initiative by donating their share of masks to other countries through a mobile application to help them contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) handed over the donations to Canadian Trade Office in Taipei Executive Director Jordan Reeves at a ceremony in Taipei on Wednesday last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release yesterday.
The masks are to be to distributed to front-line healthcare workers and First Nations peoples, with 400,000 going to the Canadian government, 50,000 to Ontario, and 25,000 each to Alberta and British Columbia, it said.
Photo taken from the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei's Facebook page
The Canadian government last week said that about 1 million KN95 respirators — which it considered a viable alternative to N95 masks — purchased from China failed to meet the required filtering standards and would not be distributed to healthcare workers, the Globe and Mail reported on Thursday last week.
Excluding the gift to Canada, Taiwan this month has donated more than 18 million masks to 15 diplomatic allies, the US, 19 European nations, countries targeted by the government’s New Southbound Policy, Latin America and Caribbean countries, and Japan.
In addition, at least 120,000 Taiwanese have agreed to donate their unused share of masks — nine adult masks or 10 children’s masks per 14 days — to other countries through a mobile app, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
The app, developed by the National Health Insurance Administration, allows members of the public to make the donation by clicking “respond to humanitarian aid” on the app, which Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, unveiled on Monday.
Taiwan now produces nearly 17 million masks per day, up from a daily output of 1.8 million in January, 3.2 million in February, 10 million in the middle of last month and 15 million at the beginning of this month, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
Daily production is expected to reach 19 million in about two weeks after the government conscripts 22 more mask production lines from the private sector, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said that daily mask production could reach 20 million.
While the price of melt-blown nonwoven fabric — the key material used in making medical masks — in other countries has jumped to 10 times higher than that before the pandemic, the economics ministry said it has more than 19 tonnes of such fabric every day to support the daily production of nearly 20 million masks.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft