The Executive Yuan has instructed state-run Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) to increase their production lines for 75 percent alcohol, hoping to fix a lack of stock by this week amid fears over the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
The coronavirus has led to a shortage of surgical masks and alcohol-based sanitizers containing at least 75 percent alcohol in Taiwan, with media reports that some people have been stealing from hospitals after failing to purchase sanitizers.
TTL management said that its staff have been working around the clock since the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Photo: CNA
To meet rising demand, the Executive Yuan has instructed the two state-run manufacturers to increase production lines for 75 percent alcohol, on top of their existing production lines for 95 percent alcohol.
For every 10 bottles of 95 percent alcohol produced, 13 to 15 bottles of 75 percent alcohol could be made, which would rid customers of the need to dilute, said a TTL manager who asked to remain anonymous.
Producing more bottles would mean that more people could buy them, the manager added.
A Taisugar manager said that the company only has one production line for 95 percent alcohol.
It would consider outsourcing the production of 75 percent alcohol and is planning later this month to ship 200,000 to 300,000 350ml bottles, the Taisugar manager said.
TTL is to start production of 75 percent alcohol at its factory in Pingtung County, followed by another three to four factories across Taiwan, depending on how the situation develops, said a second TTL manager, who also asked to remain anonymous.
To ensure availability, TTL would produce 330ml, 110ml and 60ml bottles of 75 percent alcohol, with the first batch expected to be delivered by its Pingtung factory today, the second TTL manager said, adding that production capacity is 2,000 to 3,000 dozen bottles per day.
Taisugar and TTL promised to sell 75 percent alcohol at an affordable price, adding that factories would not cease production, so there would be no need to stock up on the product.
More than 8 million additional bottles of alcohol-based sanitizers are expected to enter the market this week, the state-run manufacturers said.
Separately, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) on Thursday said that the nation was producing 3.2 million surgical masks per day, but hopes to boost the figure to 3.9 million this week and 4.6 million next week.
The Executive Yuan on Jan. 31 also approved a plan to build 60 production lines to make an additional 6 million masks per day to meet demand.
Adding the projected capacity of 4.6 million masks per day, that would eventually bring total production to more than 10 million masks per day, hopefully by early next month, Shen said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching