A “new disease prevention lifestyle” is mainly being promoted as part of preparations for the loosening of border controls, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday, as the nation marked the 45th day of no local COVID-19 infections.
A total of 419 patients have been released from isolation after treatment, said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
A group of 96 Taiwanese who had been stranded in Russia due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday returned to Taiwan, nine of whom reported suspected symptoms after arrival: two with diarrhea and seven with respiratory symptoms, including one who also developed an abnormal sense of smell, he said at the CECC’s daily news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Wang Shu-hsiu, Taipei Times
The results of the first round of testing on the nine people yesterday returned negative, Chen said, adding that the other 87 people would also be tested.
The entire group has been placed in centralized quarantine centers for mandatory 14-day quarantine, he said.
As the CECC on Tuesday announced that a ban on the sale and export of masks would be lifted on Monday next week and that nationwide disease prevention regulations would be loosened on June 7, Chen yesterday reiterated the importance of everyone thoroughly practicing the “new disease prevention lifestyle.”
Many people are anticipating the resumption of international tourism, but even though Taiwan is safe, it does not mean that it is ready to open up its borders to foreign visitors, because “very few places in the world are as safe as Taiwan,” he said.
“Some people have asked if they would be allowed to travel abroad, but the answer depends on the [disease] situation in the destination country, because we do not want Taiwanese to travel abroad and bring the novel coronavirus back,” Chen said.
“However, we cannot always remain isolated from the world, so we are promoting the ‘new disease prevention lifestyle’ not to maintain a safe domestic situation, but rather in preparation for the loosening of border controls,” he said.
The most important factor when considering whether to loosen border controls is the nation’s preparedness against COVID-19, which depends on how well people practice the new lifestyle, he added.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told the news conference that a national team for domestic mask production has finished its “periodic task.”
Daily mask production capacity has increased from about 1.88 million when the government first began requisitioning masks in January to more than 20 million, Shen said, adding that as the disease is well under control in Taiwan, demand for masks has been falling.
From Monday, the government is to requisition 8 million masks per day and allow manufacturers to sell their surplus, while a limit on sending masks to first or second-degree relatives living abroad of 30 masks per two months would also be lifted, Shen said.
While people can buy masks with their National Health Insurance card, it is likely that their price on the domestic market would fall to less than the government-run program’s NT$5, giving consumers flexibility when buying masks, he said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and related agencies are to conduct random inspections of mask manufacturers to ensure the quality of “Made in Taiwan” masks before they are exported abroad, he added.
Separately yesterday, Chen was asked in a radio interview about Chinese officials saying that he “excels at concealing the [COVID-19] situation in Taiwan.”
Chen said that might be because of his remark that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus were “patting each other on the back” at the World Health Assembly.
Chen made the remark at a CECC news conference earlier this month after Taiwan was not invited to attend the online assembly and Tedros invited Xi to make its opening speech.
It is only natural that Chinese officials were provoked by the remark, as Xi and Tedros are under immense scrutiny, Chen said, adding that if Beijing is concerned that he will run for president, its worries are unwarranted.
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
RSS