Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is the sole developer of an electronic disease prevention platform and has not formed a partnership with any nation for its development, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
As governments worldwide grapple with methods to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the platform garnered international attention on March 14 following an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering that all leisure businesses and activities in Israel be shut down.
Israeli authorities planned to use invasive technology to track the whereabouts of people infected with COVID-19 and those with whom they come into contact, Netanyahu said, without specifying the nature of the technology.
Media reports later identified the technology as cellphone tracking.
“Up until today I avoided using these measures in the civilian population, but there is no choice,” Netanyahu said. “It gives us a very, very effective tool to locate the enemy, to locate the pathogen, and to try and isolate it instead of isolating the whole country.”
The technology “was tested in Taiwan, apparently with great success. Israel is one of the only countries with this ability and we will use it,” he said, adding that the Israeli Ministry of Justice had been consulted on the proper use of such measures among the general public.
The commission yesterday said that some commentators in Taiwan have misinterpreted Netanyahu’s remarks, saying that the platform was developed using Israeli technology.
“We want to make it clear that the platform was developed solely by Chungha Telecom, which did not work with any nation to develop the system,” the NCC said.
Regarding concerns that use of the platform could constitute an invasion of the privacy of people placed in home isolation or quarantine, the commission said that the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) and Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) both give the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) clear authorization to enforce any disease prevent measures it deems necessary.
Use of the platform would not infringe upon people’s privacy, it added.
“Officials from the Executive Yuan’s Department of Cyber Security, the Centers for Disease Control [CDC] and the NCC first made plans for the system. Chunghwa Telecom was entrusted with the task of developing and launching the system on Feb. 1,” the NCC said.
“The system, the functions of which have been continuously optimized, has been used to track the subscribers of the nation’s five telecoms who were asked to undergo home isolation or quarantine,” it said.
First, the CDC compiles a list of people who need to be placed in home isolation or quarantine following close contact with COVID-19 patients or those who have returned from high-risk countries or areas, the NCC said.
The list is double-checked by local health and civil affairs departments, which ascertain whether the people can be reached at the cellphone and addresses they provide, it said.
The people’s cellphone numbers are then sent to the telecoms, which regularly report on the associated devices’ locations, which are derived from smartphone GPS data and the triangulation of base station data, it added.
If an isolated or quarantined person leaves their home, an alarm is triggered on the platform and their service provider sends a warning message to the person, as well as to local police, health and civil affairs agencies, the NCC said.
The warning message — written by the CECC — includes the person’s address, as well as the times and dates that they were found to have left their home, it said.
In addition to reminding them that they should immediately return home, it also warns them that they face a fine and compulsory resettlement for breaching home isolation and quarantine regulations in the Communicable Disease Control Act, it added.
Ninth graders were asked to define “trolling” on this year’s standardized exam, reflecting efforts to make the test better reflect real-life situations. Adjustments to this year’s Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students were revealed on Sunday, after the last cohort of students completed the test over the weekend. The Ministry of Education solicited feedback about the test from teachers, who approved of the new question in the English portion. Not only was question No. 20 “very much in line with real-life situations,” but it also used a new style in which students were asked to ascertain the correct dictionary definition based
Taiwan is on alert for monkeypox, a rare viral disease that has caused 87 infections in 11 countries over the past three weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Saturday. The WHO on Friday convened an emergency session to discuss a sudden outbreak of monkeypox in North America and Europe. Since the beginning of this month, 87 confirmed cases and 28 possible cases have been identified in 11 countries. The countries with the highest case counts are England with 29 cases, and Portugal and Spain with 23 each. Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease occurring primarily in the tropical rainforest areas
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: The large local outbreak makes travel restrictions ineffective, the health minister said, while travel agents are asking for a reopening policy Reopening the borders “is just a matter of time,” the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday, after Japan announced that Taiwanese travelers would soon be able to visit the country in package tours. Japan on Thursday said that its borders would reopen gradually, starting with travelers from 98 countries and regions on its “blue” list, which represents places with the lowest risk of infection, including Taiwan. On-arrival COVID-19 tests and quarantine requirements are being waived for travelers from a blue-listed country or region, Japanese officials said. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told a daily news
People should look out for eight signs of acute encephalitis in children and seek emergency medical treatment if they occur, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The symptoms are a body temperature of at least 41°C, impaired consciousness, excessive sleepiness, a persistent headache, vomiting, involuntary muscle twitching (myoclonic jerks), convulsions and an unsteady gait, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. The symptoms were spelled out in the “Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Acute COVID-19 Encephalitis in Children,” drawn up by members of the Taiwan Pediatric Association