The government last night announced that a Central Epidemic Command Center has been established to address the outbreak of dengue fever after the number of dengue cases reported in Kaohsiung passed 1,000 yesterday.
Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) earlier in the day said that such a center would be established should reported cases reach 10,000 nationwide or 1,000 in Kaohsiung.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data as of Sunday showed that there were 9,566 cases nationwide and 980 in Kaohsiung.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said that Vice Premier Chang Shan-cheng (張善政) would be in charge of the center and that it would hold its first meeting today.
Sun dismissed media reports that the formation of the command center meant that the central government was taking over from local governments.
“The Executive Yuan is not taking over from the local governments. A lot of work still has to be carried out by the local governments on the frontline,” he said.
The Executive Yuan would coordinate the battle against the disease, pooling the resources of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Environmental Protection Administration and the Ministry of National Defense, he added.
The central government has formed a command center to combat dengue twice before, in 2006 and 2010.
A specialist, who declined to be named, said that the central government should have assumed control of the situation earlier, but added “it is better late than never.”
Such a center could be considered successful in combating the outbreak if the number of cases does not exceed 30,000, the specialist said.
CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) previously said the establishment of a command center would be determined by three conditions: if the Tainan City Government told the Executive Yuan that it could not control the outbreak; if communication between the central and local governments failed; or if the outbreak’s spread had not slowed by the end of this month.
Regarding whether the central government might be “unprepared” to handle the situation as none of the three conditions Kuo outlined have been met, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that “everything would be done according to the Executive Yuan’s instructions.”
Meanwhile, despite Tainan being at the center of the outbreak, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) said that it was reluctant to switch playing fields because the games boost public morale.
The league said that it reached an agreement with the Tainan-based Uni-President Lions not to move the games scheduled for Tainan.
The team had its stadium disinfected and fumigated on Friday last week, and the league said it would provide insect repellent at all stadiums.
The league would also cooperate with local governments to carry out public awareness and prevention campaigns so that both players and fans could feel safe at games, the league said.
It said it would use its television broadcasts and big screens at stadiums to promote dengue fever prevention measures.
CPBL president John Wu (吳志揚), along with league secretary-general Chu Kang-chen (朱康震) and Uni-President Lions general manager Su Tai-an (蘇泰安), are to visit Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) tomorrow to express their willingness to cooperate with the local government in fighting the disease.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS