TRAVEL
HSR ticket event starts
The government yesterday launched a six-month campaign allowing foreigners making short visits to Taiwan to buy two high-speed rail (HSR) tickets to central and southern Taiwan for the price of one. From noon yesterday to May 31, people with visa-exempt entry or tourist visas allowing maximum stays of 180 days can purchase the tickets at online travel platforms KKday and Klook, the Tourism Administration said in a press release. Holders of Taiwan’s resident certificates or a Republic of China passport are not eligible to purchase the tickets, which are aimed at encouraging foreign tourists to visit less-traveled central and southern Taiwan, it said. The limited offer, based on a first-come, first-served basis, applies to HSR journeys ending at Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan or Kaohsiung’s Zuoying stations, it said. Foreign tourists who take advantage of the promotion this month would be given a bonus package, containing free round-trip tickets on the MRT Taoyuan Airport Line and a 72-hour free pass on the Taipei Metro system. Visitors can redeem that special offer at service counters at the airport line’s A12 and A13 stations between 6am and midnight, it said.
HEALTH
Dengue fever rate eases
The nation reported fewer than 1,000 dengue fever cases in the past week, indicating that the epidemic is alleviating, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Several areas in Tainan and Yunlin County have been removed from the list of hotspot transmission areas, and the situation in Kaohsiung has also become less severe, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Tuesday. With the removal of Tainan and Yunlin’s Gukeng Township (古坑) from the list, there is no longer listed as a dengue fever transmission hotspot, indicating that the epidemic had entered its final phase, Lo said. Central Epidemic Command Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said the 759 domestic cases reported from Nov. 21 to Monday were in 14 administrative regions, mostly in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County. Four deaths and seven severe cases were recorded during that week, Lee said. So far this year, the nation has logged 25,047 local dengue fever cases and 56 deaths, marking its worst outbreak since 2015, when there were more than 43,000 cases and 228 deaths.
SOCIETY
Mother dies in tent
A mother has died and her two daughters received medical treatment after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning at a Hsinchu County campground on Sunday, local authorities said. The Hsinchu County Fire Bureau said it received a call at about 2pm about a suspected poisoning at the campground in a mountainous area of Jianshih Township (尖石). Emergency responders found a woman, a 40-year-old resident of Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭) surnamed Luo (羅), dead inside a tent. Her two daughters, aged 12, were taken by ambulance to a hospital, where they both regained consciousness, the bureau said. Hsinchu police said that initial suspicions were raised after the family failed to come out for breakfast on Sunday morning and then missed the 12pm check-out time. When the campground’s owner opened the tent to check on them, he found all three unconscious and immediately called an ambulance, police said. The bureau said the family might have taken a coal fire into their tent to keep warm as nighttime temperatures plunged. It added that it had referred the matter to police and prosecutors to investigate what exactly had happened.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
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