Eye On Taiwan

CORONAVIRUS/French TV stations highlight Taiwan’s anti-COVID-19 experience Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:43 AM PDT Focus Taiwan Date 04/19/2020 By: Tseng Ting-hsun and Evelyn Kao The Eiffel Tower in Paris after France’s lockdown measures in March. (CNA file photo) Paris, April 18 (CNA) Taiwan's approach to fighting the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been featured in stories done by two French television channels the past two days. On Saturday, TF1, the leading television channel in France, ran a story on why Taiwan has been successful in containing the COVID-19 outbreak, reporting fewer than 400 confirmed cases of coronavirus to date and only six deaths. Reporter Anne-Claire Coudray said Taiwan began preparing to fend off the virus on Dec. 31, 2019 after a health official saw a message on the PTT bulletin board warning that some patients in Wuhan exhibited signs of an unidentified type of pneumonia. The Central Epidemic Command Center was then activated in January and adopted some 100 precautionary measures without imposing a total lockdown, the report said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan sees spike in COVID-19 cases due to navy outbreak Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:16 AM PDT Kyodo News Date: April 19, 2020 (A general view of Liberty Square, one of the largest touristic areas in Taipei, amid concerns of the coronavirus pandemic in Taipei, Taiwan on April 06, 2020.)[Anadolu Agency/Getty/Kyodo] Taiwan's health authorities on Sunday said that 21 additional sailors of a navy fleet have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Central Epidemic Command Center announced the previous day that three sailors of the three-ship fleet were confirmed as infected. All the more than 700 members of the fleet, which returned this month from a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau, have been quarantined. Navy Command Headquarters Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu apologized for the outbreak, while President Tsai Ing-wen expressed regret.    [FULL  STORY]

Mask-wearing mandatory for Taiwan armed forces: MND Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:07 AM PDT Military personnel required to wear masks all day to ensure Taiwan’s defense capability Taiwan News Date: 2020/04/19 By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer All military members required to wear masks for entire day.  (CNA photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following Saturday's (April 18) news that three Taiwanese navy trainees had been confirmed with Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said that all military personnel in the country will be required to wear face masks for the entire day, starting immediately. During the daily press conference for Taiwan's coronavirus update Saturday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that the three imported cases were trainees on the country's navy vessels. Since the new patients had spent time on board three different ships, more than 700 crew and trainees who were believed to have had contact with them have been placed under quarantine and will be tested for the virus.    [FULL  STORY]

CORONAVIRUS/Social distancing the new norm with vaccine far away: Taiwan VP Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:03 AM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 04/19/2020 By: Yeh Su-ping and Emerson Lim (CNA file photo) Taipei, April 19 (CNA) Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), an epidemiologist by trade, feels social distancing will became a way of life amid the COVID-19 outbreak for at least another 18 months, the time it will take to develop a vaccine. According to a transcript of Chen's interview with the Daily Telegraph8 posted on the Presidential Office's website Sunday, Chen believed mankind "won't get rid of this virus totally" because it is highly contagious with many mild or asymptomatic cases and can be transmitted through droplets and contaminated areas. There is therefore a need to develop rapid diagnostics and anti-virals to treat the cases, with milder ones to be treated by private practitioners and severe ones to be treated in medical centers, he said. "Maybe in one and a half years, we may have a vaccine… But before that, we definitely have to keep social distancing," he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Medication can affect urine color, pharmacist says Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:58 AM PDT Taipei Times Date: Apr 20, 2020 By: Tsai Min-fang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer 0.Unusual urine color or tablets in stool can be normal for people taking medication and not a cause for alarm, a pharmacist said. Drugs come in many forms and vary with pharmaceutical advances, such as sublingual tablets that introduce effects rapidly, coated tablets that ensure medication is released in the intestines and time-released tablets, Changhua Christian Hospital pharmacist Tsai Min-fang (蔡旻芳) wrote in an article published on April 2 in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). Certain time-release tablets use specific coatings so that the medication slowly “seeps” through, giving it a steady and long-term effect, she said. Ultimately, this coating is ejected from the human body along with excrement, which is why some people might see medication tablets in their waste, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Film review: ‘Tigertail’ is deeply touching, but fails to achieve narrative brilliance Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:53 AM PDT Arab News Date: April 19, 2020 By: Gautaman Bhaskara The movie opens in the rice fields of Taiwan where we see a boy who has been sent by his single mother to live with his grandparents. (Supplied) CHENNAI: Many films on immigrants focus on their plight in the new land, but Alan Yang’s new offering on Netflix, “Tigertail,” though inspired by his own father’s story who migrated from Taiwan to the US, has much more to say about the protagonist’s relationship with four women in his life — his mother, his former girlfriend in Taiwan, his wife in the US and his daughter. While Pin-Jui (Tzi Ma in his middle age, Hong-Chi Lee as a young man and Zhi-Hao Yang as a boy) shares an extremely warm bond with his mother and his former girlfriend, his relationship with his wife and daughter is strained. “Tigertail” is inspired by the filmmaker’s own father’s story who migrated from Taiwan to the US. (Supplied) The movie opens in the rice fields of Taiwan where we see a boy who has been sent by his single mother to live with his grandparents. Later, Pin-Jui relocates to a town to work along with his mother, who is a factory-hand. Torn between his dream to migrate to the US and better his dreary prospects, he gives up his girlfriend to marry the factory owner’s daughter who gives them tickets to America. Although he finally finds financial success, his personal life falls into a rut. Divorced and lonely, his only child, daughter Angela (Christine Ko), does not keep in touch with him. Yang — known as the producer-writer behind the brilliant “Parks and Recreation,” “Master of None” and “Little America” — splendidly juxtaposes the present with the past and by keeping the plot simple, confusion is avoided. Some of the most impressive scenes are Pin-Jui’s days with his first love, Yuan (Yo-Hsing). Later, Pin-Jui as an older, grumpy and distraught man, finds it hard to break the ice with Angela, and some of the touching snapshots come in the scenes between the two, but Ko is too wooden to leave a mark.    [FULL  STORY]

How Taiwan has confounded predictions in fending off the worst of Covid-19 Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:42 AM PDT ‘I think we were the front-runner of alertness’ Irish Times Date: April 19,m 2020 By: Shane Stokes A young girl and her grandfather play at a park in Taipei on April 6th, 2020. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at John Hopkins University predicted that Taiwan would be one of the countries most affected by the virus. It is located just 130km from China, saw more than 400,000 of its 24 million citizens working there last year, and had almost three million Chinese visitors in 2019. However, Taiwan has defied those expectations. By the middle of April, Taiwan had still only reported 400 Covid-19 cases, most of which were imported. And just six deaths. So what did Taiwan do so correctly? Prof Peter Chang is one of the most experienced doctors in Taiwan. Harvard-educated, he was a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health, a professor at Taipei Medical University and Kaohsiung Medical University, senior medical advisor to the National Taipei Hospital and now adjunct professor in Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. He has been an adviser to the ministry of health and has been a health diplomat for the World Health Organisation and the European Union. He also serves as an ombudsman in Taiwan.   [FULL  STORY]

Police officer falls to his death posing for photos on C. Taiwan’s Huoyanshan Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:32 AM PDT Lin was sitting on edge of cliff dangling feet while friend took photos Taiwan News Date: 2020/04/19 By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer (Miaoli County Fire Bureau photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A New Taipei policeman was found dead after falling into a ravine on central Taiwan’s Huoyanshan (火炎山) on Friday (April 17) while posing for photos, CNA reported. The mountain is composed of thick layers of gravel, and the deep valleys and cols were formed by rain erosion over many years. The attraction is like a real-life version of the “Mountain of Flames” in the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West.” The Miaoli County Fire Bureau received a report at around 1 p.m. that a visitor had fallen into a ravine in the gorge. The bureau immediately marshaled a rescue team composed of police officers, fire fighters, and volunteers, and they arrived at the scene of the accident around 2:15 p.m. Some members of the rescue team rappelled 120 meters into the ravine, and at around 4 p.m. they found the victim, who had lost vital signs. According to photos the rescue team took at the scene, the victim seemed to accelerate during the fall and thrust himself into the earth headfirst. The victim’s head and chest were buried by a great deal of dirt and rubble, and his right leg was fractured.    [FULL  STORY]

Foreign ministry working to transport Taiwanese back from India Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:28 AM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 04/19/2020 By: You Kai-hsiang and Lee Hsin-Yin New Delhi on lockdown. CNA photo April 14 Taipei, April 19 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is coordinating with China Airlines (CAL) to transport stranded Taiwanese in India back home in the wake of an extended lockdown policy there amid the COVID-19 pandemic. If the plan works out, a flight using CAL's current Delhi-Taoyuan route will bring passengers back, and they will be quarantined in designated places upon arrival, the ministry said. The Indian government first announced a lockdown of the country on March 25, and later extended it on April 14 to May 3. There have been requests from Taiwanese in India and other countries in South Asia to help them return home, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

Insufficient sleep might harm children: doctor Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:23 AM PDT SLEEP-DEPRIVED: A psychologist said that the less children sleep, the more likely they are to show signs of depression and anxiety and act impulsively Taipei Times Date: Apr 20, 2020 By: William Hetherington / Staff writer Studies show that insufficient sleep could cause children psychological harm, a psychologist said, urging parents to monitor how much their children sleep. The findings were reported in two recent studies, one published by scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry and the other by JAMA Network Open, Kaohsiung Drug Abuser Treatment Center clinical psychologist Ko Chun-ming (柯俊銘) said. In the Molecular Psychiatry report, University of Warwick researcher Edmund Rolls and his team analyzed the sleeping patterns of 11,000 children aged nine to 11, comparing those who slept less than seven hours per night with those who slept nine to 11 hours per night, Ko said. “Our findings showed that the behavior problems total score for children with less than seven hours sleep was 53 percent higher on average and the cognitive total score was 7.8 percent lower on average than for children with nine to 11 hours of sleep,” University of Warwick professor Jianfeng Feng said in a news release.   [FULL  STORY]