Taiwanese in China’s Hubei Province are to be allowed to return to the nation on their own starting tomorrow, when the CPBL would be able to admit up to 1,000 spectators to baseball games, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads of the center, said that Taiwanese in China’s Hubei Province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, would not be required to take chartered flights or quasi-chartered flights from designated airports to return home.
The Chinese government imposed an unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and other cities in Hubei on Jan. 23, leaving more than 1,000 Taiwanese, as well as their Chinese spouses and children, stranded in the province.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The CECC in late February announced that the National Immigration Agency had marked the identification papers of the Taiwanese in Hubei, and that they would only be allowed to return on chartered flights.
Chen said the special markings would not be removed to allow immigration officers at airports to identify Taiwanese returning from Hubei, and that they would be required to stay at a centralized quarantine facility for 14 days before returning home.
Meanwhile, from tomorrow, up to 1,000 spectators would be able attend each CPBL game, he said.
Photo: Seanwen Yang, courtesy of the Yushan National Park Administrative Office
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said that online reservations for lodges in national parks with mountains — including Yushan (玉山), Taroko (太魯閣) and Shei-Pa (雪霸) national parks — would be reopened today.
Chen announced that one new imported COVID-19 case (No. 439) was confirmed yesterday.
The case is a woman in her 30s, who had worked in the UK since January and returned to Taiwan on Apr. 26.
The woman reported that she had a stuffy nose and felt fatigued when she returned to Taiwan, so she received a COVID-19 test at the airport and was taken to a centralized quarantine facility, but was moved to a quarantine hotel the next day as the test came back negative, he said.
She continued to have a runny and stuffy nose, and developed an abnormal sense of taste during her stay at the hotel, so she was tested again on Monday and the result came back positive, Chen said.
CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said that the woman thought she might have been experiencing menstrual fatigue on her trip back to Taiwan, so the center could not pinpoint when her COVID-19 symptoms began.
Applications for the Executive Yuan’s extended COVID-19 relief program — a one-time payment of NT$10,000 to workers not covered by social insurance programs — opened yesterday.
The center is grateful to officials at local district offices for handling the extra work, Chen said.
Those eligible are urged to not all apply on the first few days, as it would cause the offices to be overcrowded, he added.
The applications would be reviewed generously, promptly and in a way that is convenient to applicants, he said, adding that if people cannot provide documents to prove their eligibility, their application would most likely be accepted if they sign an affidavit.
About 99 percent of people who are not covered by any social insurance program and have very little savings should be trusted as long as they sign the affidavit, Chen said, adding that they would need to write a brief description of how their jobs have been affected by the pandemic.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary