HEALTH
Dengue fever case confirmed
An indigenous case of dengue fever has been confirmed in Greater Kaohsiung following a group infection in Greater Tainan earlier this month, an official of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. A 12-year-old boy developed flu-like symptoms, including a fever and a rash, on May 12 and was taken to a hospital, where he tested positive for dengue fever antigen on May 16. However, the boy, who lives in Nanzih District (楠梓), was not confirmed to have dengue fever until Tuesday, said Liu Shih-hao (劉士豪), director of the CDC’s public relations office. The boy’s mother also tested positive for dengue, said Tsai Wu-hsiung (蔡武雄), director of the Kaohsiung Health Department’s Center for Disease Control. The annual high season for dengue fever runs from June through August, Liu said.
AGRICULTURE
Torrential rain causes losses
Agricultural losses have grown to NT$35.05 million (US$1.19 million) in seven counties and cities since May 17, when torrential rain began to batter those areas, Council of Agriculture statistics released yesterday showed. Because of the storm damage, the price of leafy vegetables rose to NT$26 per kilogram in Taipei’s fruit and vegetable wholesale markets from NT$21.5 per kilogram recorded on May 16, according to statistics posted on the council’s Web site. The council said that crop losses in Greater Taichung, Greater Kao-hsiung and Greater Tainan, along with Pingtung, Yunlin, Changhua and Nantou counties, were NT$34.6 million. The area of damage to crop-growing farmland reached 2,290 hectares, accounting for 14 percent of the total.
SOCIETY
Lessons for dog owners
Starting next year, would-be dog owners in New Taipei City (新北市) will be eligible for various free services for their pets if they attend a two-hour lesson on how to look after a pet properly, a city official said. The incentives include exemption from pet registration fees and free pet chip IDs, cremation and neutering subsidies worth about NT$4,000, it said. The new regulations will be promoted from the middle of July, after which the public will be encouraged to attend the class, which teaches responsible pet ownership, it said. The purpose of the regulations is to help combat the high level of pet abandonment.
SOCIETY
Marriage on the increase
The nation recorded 49,558 marriages between January and last month, an increase of 1.7 percent compared with the same period last year, according to Ministry of the Interior statistics. Among the married couples, 85.7 percent were Taiwanese and 14.3 percent were international marriages, the ministry said. The number of international marriages increased by 0.2 percentage points from the same period last year, the ministry said. The majority of cross-border marriages involved a Chinese spouse (63.1 percent), while Southeast Asian spouses accounted for 22.4 percent and the remaining 14.5 percent were from other countries, it said. The average age of a Taiwanese woman getting married for the first time rose last year to a record 29.4, while the average age of first-time grooms has remained at about 31.8 for the past two years, the data showed. The average age of men who were re-marrying was 44.2 years, while for women it was 38.2, a slight drop compared with 2010.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to