The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) urged the public to use reusable dining utensils following a spike in the use of disposable utensils amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Reusable utensils are more hygienic than disposable ones after they are properly cleaned,” Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said on Thursday.
The use of disposable utensils has increased about 50 percent, as restaurants provide more disposable tableware amid diners’ concerns over hygiene, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Deputy Minister Shen Chih-hsiu (沈志修) said.
The use of disposable utensils rose from a monthly average of 6,720 tonnes last year to 10,700 tonnes during the disease-prevention period, EPA Department of Waste Management Director-General Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) said.
Customers should not worry about using reusable utensils, while restaurant owners should comply with the Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines on proper cleaning methods for tableware, and disinfect their surroundings on a regular basis, Shen said.
Proper handwashing with soap can effectively remove pathogens on hands, as well as other objects, CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said, adding that washing hands before eating is important.
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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