The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday evening held an award ceremony and gratitude banquet for groups that helped the nation fight the COVID-19 pandemic over the past three years.
The event at the Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel was attended by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former minister of health and welfare and Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) director Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who succeeded Chen Shih-chung as CECC head, as well as about 400 representatives from all walks of life.
The event began with a minute of silence in tribute to the more than 19,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in Taiwan.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Tsai offered sincere condolences on behalf of the government to the lives lost during the pandemic and expressed gratitude to those who contributed to fighting COVID-19.
“There are endless people to thank and endless heartfelt gratitude to express,” she said. “We are truly thankful for all of you. It is so good for Taiwan to have you.”
Taiwan and its international partners helped each other overcome the harsh challenges of the pandemic, Tsai said.
Now that life is gradually returning to normal, Taiwan welcomes its friends from around the world to visit the nation, Tsai said.
However, there would be more challenges in the future, she said, urging the international community to continue to work with Taiwan.
Chen Chien-jen said Taiwan demonstrated its resilience in the face of many disasters and adversities.
Lessons learned from fighting SARS in 2003 prepared Taiwan for the pandemic, the premier said, adding that under the lead of Tsai, Su, CECC officials and frontline disease prevention and healthcare personnel, as well as collective efforts from the public, Taiwan performed well in fighting COVID-19.
He said he believes no matter what challenges lie ahead, Taiwanese would continue to enhance social cohesion to make Taiwan a better, warm-hearted and resilient country.
Tsai and Chen Chien-jen presented 108 awards to healthcare professionals, frontline disease prevention teams, local governments and other groups, such as those involved in organizing disease prevention taxi services.
The event ended with officials holding placards with letters spelling out “Taiwan end COVID-19” and “Taiwan COVID-19 hope and resilience.”
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS