Residents of Taipei, Taoyuan and Tainan lag behind those of the three other special municipalities in taking advantage of free health checkups for young children, data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare showed.
The ministry offers seven free checkups for children up to the age of seven, aimed at preventing stunted development.
The WHO defines stunting as impaired growth and development due to poor nutrition, repeated infection or inadequate psychosocial stimulation.
Between 958,000 and 1.1 million preventative checkups were performed annually from 2017 to 2021, and 77.7 to 80.9 percent of children received them every year, the data showed.
Among Taiwan’s regions, the lowest number of children receiving them were in Keelung, at 62.6 percent, Lienchiang County at 70.8 percent and Chiayi County at 73.3 percent.
For this year the ministry has budgeted NT$240 million (US$7.8 million) for the checkups, saying it anticipates about 888,000 checkups to be performed.
Chen Li-chuan (陳麗娟), a senior specialist in the Health Promotion Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Division, on Friday said that the participation rate is calculated based on population figures provided by household registration offices.
As many people do not live where they are registered, the rates are only estimates, she said.
The Taipei Department of Health said that the city had the highest checkup participation rate before the COVID-19 pandemic began, but it decreased significantly in 2020.
However, the rate increased over the past two years, it said, adding that it sends notifications about the checkups to parents via SMS.
The city also sends nurses to kindergartens each year to conduct physical, vision, hearing and oral examinations on about 60,000 children, it said.
Taoyuan Department of Public Health Deputy Director Su Po-wen (蘇柏文) said her agency has provided checkups at kindergartens and community centers since 2020, helping the city reach a coverage rate of 90.16 percent.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ssu-pei, Cheng Shu-ting and Hung Jui-chin
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to