Taipei residents diagnosed with COVID-19 should remain under house quarantine for 17 days, effective immediately, Taipei City Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday.
The announcement followed the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) most recent policy asking people diagnosed with COVID-19, but who show no or only mild symptoms, to remain in home quarantine to prevent hospitals from being flooded with patients.
People who exhibit symptoms and cannot quarantine at their registered residence would be moved to hotels set up with isolation facilities for 10 days, Huang said.
If after 10 days they no longer exhibit COVID-19 symptoms and doctors approve their release, they would be allowed to quarantine at home for a week, she said, adding that the hospital or screening stations would have designated taxis transport them to their home.
Taipei hospitals have been at or near capacity dealing with patients exhibiting mild or no symptoms who were previously unable to leave due to epidemic prevention restrictions, but as of yesterday, these patients can be moved to designated quarantine facilities, Huang said.
This would resolve issues of people arriving at hospitals where there were no available beds in isolation wards, she added.
There was also a significant discrepancy in the number of available hospital beds the CECC sees in its system — 682 — compared with the 20 available beds that the Taipei City Government’s data show, she said.
The situation at hospitals is in constant flux, and the CECC cannot know what is going on without being present, she added.
“We are coming up daily with ways to simplify procedures to allow medical personnel to see to more people,” she said, urging the public to give hotels and staff working around the clock more encouragement and empathy.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
RSS