All train and intercity bus passengers must wear a mask and have their temperature checked either at a station or aboard, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
Masks must also be worn at highway rest stops, Lin said.
The Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSR) has installed thermal imaging cameras at the entrances to all its 12 stations, and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) has installed them at its 239 stations, the THSR and TRA said in separate statements.
Photo: Ho Cheng-hsu, Taipei Times
Temperatures are to be checked when entering any Chunghwa Post Co offices and masks must be worn, the company said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday proposed a relief package for drivers of taxi and tour buses that would allow drivers to apply for a monthly subsidy of NT$10,000 (US$330.50) for up to three months.
The package, intended to provide relief to drivers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, would cost an estimated NT$3.45 billion, the ministry said.
It has the support of the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan, but would not be finalized until a detailed report is made by the Directorate-General of Highways and approved by the Executive Yuan, the ministry said.
Lin has been communicating with the Presidential Office and Executive Yuan to secure the funding, the ministry said.
There are an estimated 16,000 tour bus drivers and 100,000 taxi drivers nationwide who would be eligible for the subsidies, it said.
A separate subsidy package recently implemented by the ministry provides taxi drivers with a NT$2,000 monthly stipend for fuel for up to six months, and a subsidy of up to NT$74,000 for tour bus drivers to cover fuel costs, reduced licensing fees and interest relief for bus loans.
Bus drivers can also apply for up to NT$110,000 to cover driver training courses under that package.
Vice president-elect William Lai (賴清德), a former premier, wrote on Facebook that he has been in touch with Lin in the past few days, and he thought that taxi drivers should have more than a NT$2,000 monthly fuel stipend, because they have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has asked the Executive Yuan to discuss the issue, and it was expected to make an announcement soon, he wrote.
Additional reporting by Ho Yu-hua
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
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
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