Eye On Taiwan

Taiwanese doctor creates cheap protective device amid virus crisis Posted: 22 Mar 2020 01:52 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 03/22/2020 By: By Lee Hsien-feng and Emerson Lim Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇) Taipei, March 22 (CNA) The design of a simple protective device for use when intubating patients is now being shared for free by a Taiwanese doctor to help health care providers overcome supply shortages created by the new coronavirus pandemic. This improvised "Aerosol Box," which helps physicians perform endotracheal intubations, was created by Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇), an anesthesiologist with Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan. "It all started when my friends in the medical field in China asked me in January to design something to give additional protection to medical workers in facilities that were running out of resources," Lai wrote in Chinese on his Facebook page. "But now, most of the inquiries I get about the box are coming from my friends in the United States," Lai said.    [FULL  STORY]

Virus Outbreak: Taipei adds 4th quarantine hotel Posted: 22 Mar 2020 01:48 PM PDT ADEQUATE COVERAGE: New Taipei City, which has more than 9,500 people under home quarantine, said it would add another 450 rooms at its disease prevention hotels Taipei Times Date: Mar 23, 2020 By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter The Taipei City Government has added a fourth designated disease prevention hotel, allowing people under 14-day home quarantine to isolate themselves from NT$5,000 per day, it said yesterday. The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism launched the first disease prevention hotel on Feb. 21 to accommodate travelers without a place to stay during mandatory home isolation or quarantine, and for people who want to separate themselves from their family members or roommates during quarantine. The department said that as of yesterday, more than 120 travelers have stayed at one of the city’s three disease prevention hotels, and their 178 rooms are nearly all booked. While most people who checked in to the hotels last week were from Europe, guests that checked in yesterday were all from the US and Canada, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan reports 16 new COVID-19 cases, bringing total to 169 Posted: 22 Mar 2020 01:44 PM PDT Radio Taiwan International Date: 22 March, 2020 By: John Van Trieste Fears about COVID-19 and the closure of Taiwan’s borders to foreign visitors have left popular tourist sites deserted. Pictured here is Taipei 101 on Sunday. Fears about COVID-19 and the closure of Taiwan's borders to foreign visitors have left popular tourist sites deserted. Pictured here is Taipei 101 on Sunday. Taiwanese health officials announced 16 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday. The newest cases bring the total number Taiwan has reported since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak up to 169. Only three of the new cases are cases of local transmission. Health officials have compiled a list of people that at least one of these new patients has been in recent contact with. Almost all of the people on this list have already been tested, and none have had a positive result so far. [FULL  STORY]

Does Sen. Peters Know Something We Don’t? He’s Praising Communist China Over the Wuhan Coronavirus. Posted: 22 Mar 2020 01:27 PM PDT Town Hall Date: Mar 21, 2020 By: Beth Baumann Source: AP Photo/Detroit News, David Coates China is single-handedly responsible for the Wuhan coronavirus becoming a pandemic. Chinese officials were more focused on covering up what was happening in their country than trying to prevent the spread of the disease. In fact, the State Department took issue with the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai pushing false information that the virus began in the United States. The World Health Organization worked alongside China to cover up what was taking place, which is why the organization ignored Taiwan's warning about the Wuhan coronavirus back in December. Despite knowing what we know, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) is praising China for how they've handled this epidemic-turned-pandemic. "You gotta make sure you're helping families, make sure unemployment insurance is there, make sure families aren't losing their homes or can't buy food, but at the same time, you have to keep other elements of the economy continuing to work," Peters said on Morning Joe. “We saw that in China. Outside of Hubei province, a lot of the factories continued to work. They separated their employees. They had partitions. They found ways to continue to keep some of the economy going in other parts of the country that weren’t impacted as much as it was in Hubei." According to the Michigan Senator, America needs to implement the same kind of economic strategy.     [FULL  STORY]

1New Taipei City man fined NT$1 million for violating quarantine Posted: 22 Mar 2020 12:54 PM PDT Man offended in particularly extreme manner by visiting nightclub when ordered to stay home Taiwan News Date: 2020/03/22 By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A New Taipei City man surnamed Huang faces a NT$1 million (US$33,000) fine for patronizing a night club when he was supposed to be at home observing a 14-day quarantine. The New Taipei City Government said that Huang, who resides in Sanchong District, was booked for the quarantine violation by the Taipei City Police Department when they made a spot check at a night club on Sunday morning, CNA reported. Huang returned to Taiwan from Southeast Asia on March 18 and was supposed to quarantine himself at home until April 2.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan adds 16 new COVID-19 cases, bringing total to 169 (update) Posted: 22 Mar 2020 12:23 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 03/22/2020 By|: Chen Wei-ting and Joseph Yeh Taipei, March 22 (CNA) A total of 16 new coronavirus cases, 13 of which originated overseas, were Health Minister Chen Shih-chung confirmed in Taiwan on Sunday, bringing the total number to 169 since the outbreak began, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said. Among the new patients, three are believed to have contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) locally, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC. One of the three, a woman in her 20s, is a nurse at a nursing home. So far, 81 doctors, nurses and residents at the nursing home have been tested for COVID-19, and all have tested negative, according to Chen. Health authorities are now moving five of the 53 patients to a nearby hospital while the rest of the 48 will be sent to two quarantine locations to prevent a further spread of the disease, said Deputy Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元).    [FULL  STORY]

Inside Taiwan during COVID-19: How the country kept schools and businesses open throughout pandemic Posted: 22 Mar 2020 11:43 AM PDT Taiwan acted early to make sure there were supplies of masks, sanitizer CBC By: Caitlin Taylor, Stephanie Kampf, Tyana Grundig and David Common · CBC · Date:: Mar 21, 2020 | Last Updated: 2 hours ago How Taiwan is beating COVID-19. Can Canada do the same? Both Taiwan and Canada reported their first presumptive cases of COVID-19 within days of each other, but their experience of life with the pandemic has been quite different. Children in Taiwan are still in school, restaurants are open and there’s no shortage of protective supplies. Watch what Canada can learn from Taiwan's approach to fight the spread of the coronavirus. It's almost life as usual for the Lin family of Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic — with a few noticeable exceptions. "We didn't worry too much," said Leeli Chang, who lives with her husband, Terry Lin, and her daughter, Peggy, 8, in a suburb of Taipei. The family, like many in Taiwan, has continued to go to work, to school and out shopping as normal since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but now with some precautions in place — such as regular temperature checks and hand sanitizer dispensers outside most public buildings and protective masks.    [FULL  STORY]