The Ministry of Education has allocated NT$400 million (US$13.2 million) to help universities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funds are to be used to support schools that have had to introduce “flexible tuition” and “flexible learning” options for overseas students who are unable to return to their schools in Taiwan, and to help schools purchase disease-prevention supplies, such as masks and thermometers, the ministry said in a statement.
Public and private universities have until April 15 to apply for the program, it added.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
About NT$100 million of the funds would come from the government’s special COVID-19 budget, the ministry said.
The Legislative Yuan earlier this month passed a NT$60 billion budget to fund prevention efforts and to provide economic stimulus and relief.
In related news, National Tsing Hua University president Hocheng Hong (賀陳弘) on Tuesday said that 20 courses at the university have shifted to distance learning until Tuesday next week after local authorities notified the school that some students and teachers had been in “close contact” with someone confirmed to have COVID-19.
According to the Hsinchu Public Health Bureau, 26 students and teachers had had contact with the person, Hocheng said in a letter to the school community.
More than 900 students at the university are affected by the suspension of on-campus instruction, and they have been asked to self-manage their health and to avoid public places until Tuesday next week, in line with regulations.
If they must go outside, they should wear a mask, he said, adding that the students should maintain detailed records of their temperatures and other activities.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the