Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday announced his resignation, saying that he was standing down to focus on his Taipei mayoral campaign ahead of the Nov. 26 election.
Chen, who on Wednesday was selected as the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, told a Cabinet news conference in Taipei that he had submitted his letter of resignation to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday morning.
Chen said that he would stay on as health minister until a successor is named, adding that he would also resign from his duties as head of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Photo: CNA
Chen, who became health minister in 2017, rose to prominence as the face of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, hosting the center’s daily news briefings.
The center had worked tirelessly to fight COVID-19 over the past two years, Chen said, adding that he was confident his replacement would lead the team with similar vigor.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that the Cabinet would announce Chen’s replacement as soon as a decision is made.
Anonymous Cabinet sources on Wednesday said that the government was expected to name Chen’s replacement in one week.
Chen, 68, was a dentist before being appointed deputy minister of the then-Department of Health in 2005.
He has never run for government office, but his central role in leading the nation’s COVID-19 response has transformed him into a hopeful to lead the capital.
Chen’s entry into the Taipei mayoral race has been heavily criticized by opposition parties such as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which said that Chen would be abandoning his post while the nation continues to deal with COVID-19.
In the mayoral race, Chen is to face KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), and possibly Deputy Taipei Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), who has yet to announce her election bid, as a candidate for the Taiwan People’s Party.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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