The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday launched a mobile app exclusively for people who are under isolation, quarantine or self-health management in connection with a COVID-19 cluster infection at a Taoyuan hospital, to provide round-the-clock online consultation with the help of emergency medicine doctors for free.
A cluster infection has broken out at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital since the first case was confirmed on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated a hospitalized patient who had returned from the US.
As of yesterday, 15 people associated with the hospital have contracted the disease.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that as the center has extended the quarantine standards for the hospital cluster, 1,301 people have as of yesterday been placed under 14-day isolation.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that the mobile app has been launched especially for people associated with the hospital cluster — those who are under isolation, quarantine or self-health management, as well as hospital patients’ family members who live with them and caregivers who accompanied patients at the hospital.
Two emergency medicine doctors would be available at all times for users to consult online if they experience abnormal health conditions, he said, adding that the users can upload photographs or medical records for the doctors’ reference.
The doctors are from Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, China Medical University Hospital, Tainan’s Chi Mei Medical Center, and Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, he added.
Taoyuan General Hospital would help deliver drugs to patients who need prescription medicine, Shih said.
If one of the doctors determines that a user need to seek medical attention at a hospital, the Taoyuan Department of Public Health would arrange the transportation and medical appointment, ensuring that the procedure is conducted under proper COVID-19 prevention standards, he said.
To use the online consultation service, eligible people should download the mobile app by scanning a QR code published by the CECC, fill in a real-name registration form and receive verification, Shih said, adding that he hopes that those who are eligible would not abuse the free service.
Shih urged healthcare practitioners to ask the contact history of patients who were discharged from Taoyuan General Hospital from Jan. 6 to Tuesday last week.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater