A motel stay by a crew member of the navy supply ship Panshih (磐石) who was confirmed infected with COVID-19 should not have been made public, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) said yesterday.
The information was released by the Kaohsiung City Government following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus on the ship.
Public criticism of the military has not been completely fair, Wu told a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee in Taipei, of which he is a member.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Critics say the military has a culture of hiding things, he said.
Wu urged people to think about what an 18 or 19-year-old service member would do on their leave — not knowing that they have been infected — after having been out to sea for weeks and going through tough training.
It would be normal for them to spend time with their family and partner, Wu said.
He called for better protection of military personnel’s private information so that they would be willing to participate in investigations honestly.
Over the past few days, local media have reported that one crew member went to a motel with their girlfriend on two consecutive nights, Wu said, adding that such information should not be made public.
Following such reports, would any crew members be willing to participate in investigations truthfully, he asked.
Contact investigations should not be conducted by Ministry of National Defense officials, Wu said, questioning how military personnel would respond to such questions from their superiors.
He called for the Central Epidemic Command Center to be involved in such investigations.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊) said that the ministry has sent the relevant information to the center for a centralized investigation.
Asked by Wu whether there are disease prevention measures in place for “hostesses” who have turned to late-night eateries and karaoke bars for work, Su said that government agencies have been trying their best to provide relief to the public.
Even people without labor insurance can apply for relief, she said.
It would be difficult to conduct case investigations should another hostess be diagnosed with the disease, Wu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said that if the hostess bar industry and other related sectors go “underground,” it would be difficult to stay on top of the situation.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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