Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the disease prevention measures implemented in the next week would be critical in determining how the nation’s COVID-19 situation develops.
Ko made the remark on the sidelines of a launch event for Cherish Food Taiwan’s Cherish Food Kitchen, which is to provide 300 free hot boxed lunches each day to frontline healthcare professionals at seven hospitals in Taipei and New Taipei City.
The association said that it collects unconsumed ingredients to make the meals and gives them to elderly people who are in need.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
It established the new kitchen to expand its capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak and would provide meals to frontline medical professionals from Monday to Friday for three months, it said.
The seven hospitals are: New Taipei City Hospital’s Sanchong and Banciao branches, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taipei Hospital and Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital, Shinkong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital, and Taipei City Hospital’s Chung Hsin Branch.
“In my opinion, the upcoming week is the most dangerous period [for Taiwan], as the reported cases have increased by about 20 every day,” he said. “If we can keep it under control and reduce the numbers, then we can pass the second wave [of imported cases], but if there is a loophole, the situation will be horrible.”
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said that no one knows when the battle against COVID-19 will end, so everyone should play their part, like members of a baseball team.
In addition to cooperating with the central government, local governments must also cooperate, just as Taipei provided the building for the Cherish Food Kitchen and New Taipei City provided the ingredients, so that meals could be provided to hospitals in both cities, he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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