Taipei healthcare workers and disease prevention personnel who have come into close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case can continue working without being placed in isolation as per a new policy, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday while visiting a COVID-19 care center in Zhongshan District (中山), on the day the policy took effect.
Exposed personnel who have received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine can remain at work under a plan that includes continual testing, said Ko, who was released from home isolation at midnight that day.
A rapid test is to be performed each morning before starting work, he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Taipei City Government on Wednesday established 12 COVID-19 care centers throughout the city, providing comprehensive care services for the increasing number of confirmed cases who are isolating at home, and people who are under home quarantine.
“There are about 2,900 people quarantined or isolated at home in Zhongshan District alone,” he said. “If there is a confirmed case at the care center, it might cause workers to be isolated and the center’s operation to be halted. Who will provide care services for more than 2,000 people?”
Included in the policy are health department officials, police officers, firefighters and environmental protection department officials, who are all considered by the city to be disease prevention personnel, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said as she visited a care center in Neihu District (內湖) yesterday morning.
Huang was also released from isolation at midnight.
The policy could be expanded to include public transportation employees, wholesale market workers and school faculties, she said.
The city is to discuss with the central government today whether rapid tests for healthcare workers and other personnel should be conducted daily or every two days, Taipei City Government Deputy Spokeswoman Vivienne Wei (魏文元) said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS