After China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Monday said it was worried about Taiwan’s COVID-19 disease prevention measures, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said that China does not have good credit either.
The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission reported three cases in which travelers from Taiwan tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 19, Aug. 24 and on Sunday.
TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said in a news release issued on Monday night that China has confirmed three imported COVID-19 cases from Taiwan in the past two weeks, and that “the high frequency has sparked great concern among people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait, worrying about Taiwan’s disease control.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Ma asked: “How many big flaws are still in Taiwan’s COVID-19 prevention, how many actual infected patients are there and how much risk are the compatriots on the island [Taiwan] facing?”
He said that these issues could not be neglected.
Ma also urged the Democratic Progressive Party to be responsible for preventing and controlling the disease professionally, and to stop the chain of infection.
Although there had recently been a few cases in which travelers from Taiwan had tested positive in China, there are still uncertainties regarding the sources of infection, Chen said yesterday, adding that Taiwan had properly conducted contact tracing in the nation as soon as it received reports of the cases.
Asked if Ma’s remarks would harm Taiwan’s international status, Chen said: “I don’t think so. It is normal to be questioned by other countries, but China itself does not have good [international] credit either.”
Everyone knows well whether Taiwan’s disease prevention measures have big flaws, but the nation would continue to conduct contact tracing and see if there is room for improvement, he said.
Among the three cases reported in Shanghai, the first tested negative twice, then tested positive in a third test, followed by two negative results in the fourth and fifth tests, so whether he actually contracted the disease is still uncertain, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman.
The second case tested negative upon arrival, but later tested positive after six to seven days in Shanghai, so the source of infection is still unknown, he said, adding that the third case likely contracted the disease in the US before coming to Taiwan and then going to Shanghai.
The CECC thanks the Chinese authorities for providing information on the three cases when the center asked about them, Chuang said, adding that tests on all close contacts of the three people were negative, but the CECC’s specialist advisory panel would decide when to close the cases.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS