CHARITY
Hospital raises NT$6m
Taiwanese have donated more than NT$6 million (US$197,968) to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, following an appeal for help on Wednesday by an Italian priest who has worked for more than 50 years building healthcare services in rural Taiwan. Catholic Father Giuseppe Didone issued a public letter asking for donations to the fundraising center of Camillian Saint Mary’s Hospital Luodong in Yilan County, which would be used to purchase emergency provisions, including masks and protective gowns, for medical personnel in Italy. The hospital said its fundraising deadline is April 15. Because of restrictions on the purchase and export of medical supplies, the Camillian order, which operates the hospital, said it is seeking permission to purchase the supplies locally and ship them to Italy. If that fails, the order said it would consider trying to purchase the products abroad.
HEALTH
Fast-food takes on virus
Fast-food restaurants have said they are taking additional precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19, in response to new social distancing guidelines announced on Tuesday by the Central Epidemic Command Center. KFC is encouraging people to use its “contact-free” pick-up and delivery option to reduce the risk of infection and is posting notices at its outlets of distancing guidelines. TKK Fried Chicken said it has asked employees to remind customers to stay at least 1.5m apart indoors. At McDonald’s locations, in-store and delivery workers are required to wear masks and wash their hands once per hour, and have been asked to voluntarily test and record their temperatures. MOS Burger employees are required to take their temperature before starting their shifts and to wear a face mask while on duty.
DIPLOMACY
US calls for WHA inclusion
The US Department of State on Friday called for Taiwan to receive observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), and said its model for fighting COVID-19 could benefit countries worldwide. “Taiwan is a leader in preventing the spread of COVID-19. The United States and Taiwan hope to share the Taiwan Model with countries around the world. Taiwan has a role to play in global health and should be a World Health Assembly observer,” the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs tweeted. On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would push for an “appropriate role” for Taiwan at the WHA, the policy-setting body of the WHO. On Tuesday, Taiwanese and US officials held a virtual forum to discuss efforts to reinstate Taiwan’s WHA observer status and to share the successful “Taiwan model” of containing COVID-19.
TOURISM
Arrivals drop significantly
The number of passengers arriving in Taiwan has continued to drop dramatically month-on-month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said on Friday. The number of arrivals handled by airports and sea ports were 2,262,692 in January, 1,136,655 in February and 215,662 last month, when the government began to clamp down on travel, such as banning the entry of all foreign nationals with few exceptions from March 19. The number of daily arrivals last month averaged about 7,000, an NIA official said, adding that the figures for March 19 and March 20 were 6,511 and 5,607 respectively. International flights in and out of the nation’s airports have also declined.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
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