Typhoon Doksuri might cause Tainan’s dengue fever outbreak to worsen in the coming days, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said on Wednesday, as the total number of confirmed cases rose to 587.
Rainfall from the typhoon would complicate the municipality’s efforts to stop the spread of dengue fever by flooding the basements of old housing projects, unoccupied structures, vacant lots and construction zones, he told a meeting at the city’s epidemic command center.
“The city’s challenges will begin only after the storm,” the Tainan Public Health Bureau quoted the mayor as saying in a statement.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
The typhoon would likely drive mosquitoes into residential buildings, thereby heightening infection risks throughout the city, Huang said, urging health officials to be vigilant.
Huang instructed municipal personnel to be thorough in the post-storm cleanup, citing data indicating that mosquito activity is likely to surge in the week following heavy rain.
Extreme climate events this year have significantly increased dengue fever risks, while changes in urban demographics have encouraged the disease’s range of propagation, said Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), a professor at National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health.
Countering this effect would require the city to adapt its disease control strategy on a district-by-district basis, he said.
Tainan on Wednesday reported 30 new domestic dengue fever cases, including 15 in Yongkang District (永康), five in East District (東區), four in Rende District (仁德) and two in South District (南區).
They also included one reported case each in North District (北區), Annan District (安南), Gueiren District (歸仁) and Guanmiao District (關廟), the bureau said, adding that cases have been reported in 12 of the city’s 37 districts.
The infected ranged from age four to 81, with 25 cases being reported by hospitals or clinics and five more discovered after officials conducted contact tracing, the bureau said.
The bureau on Tuesday inspected 248 households and discovered six vessels containing mosquitoes in three of the homes, it said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
President William Lai (賴清德) today condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Essen, Germany, yesterday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with media employees. “Why are you taking our things?” the media employees asked. “Does that say Chinese Taipei?” the two Chinese reportedly said. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on
RSS