The Ministry of the Interior and doctors have issued public advisories to lower the COVID-19 infection risk amid an outbreak of the virus since last week.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) urged residents in high-rise buildings and residential communities to observe a set of rules:
People should wear masks at all times; avoid conversations in elevators; wash their hands regularly, especially after touching buttons in elevators and door handles in public spaces; register visitors with the building or community management, and take their temperature; and if they are responsible for public areas, increase cleaning, make available masks and hand sanitizers, and temporarily shut down indoor playing areas for children, gyms and other facilities.
While communities are mandated to hold annual resident meetings, Hsu said that they should be postponed during the outbreak.
Meetings should be held once the pandemic situation allows it, or should be held online, Hsu said, adding that communities would not be fined for breaching meeting deadlines.
Separately, Wu Chang-teng (吳昌騰), a doctor in Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s pediatrics department, warned against visiting crowded places with heightened infection risk amid the outbreak.
Infection risk at places like KTVs and restaurants is higher because there is significant pedestrian traffic, Wu wrote on Facebook.
At those places, aerosol particles stay in the air a long time, Wu said, adding that there is often not enough air circulation inside the establishments.
Visitors to the establishments touch door handles, and faucets and flush buttons in restrooms, which also increases the infection risk, Wu said, adding that close physical contact between people is not required for the virus to spread.
Wu said that people should stay home if possible, adding that those who use public restrooms should follow a set of rules:
People should only use public restrooms with adequate air circulation, wait for one to two minutes before entering a bathroom stall after a previous user has left, sanitize their hands before touching door knobs and flush buttons, and close the toilet lid before flushing the toilet or wear a mask if the toilet has no lid, Wu said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS