The Department of Health (DOH) is coordinating with local governments to speed up the installation of facilities for patients suspected of having SARS in 10 regional hospitals around the nation.
Since May 20, the two hospitals assigned to become hospitals for SARS patients in Taipei -- Sanchung Hospital and Sungshan Hospital -- have made available facilities for 92 and 102 SARS patients respectively.
The Chishan Hospital in Kaohsiung County announced yesterday that 49 negative pressure rooms in the hospital will be ready for SARS patients by June 5.
In central Taiwan, the Taichung Military Hospital entrusted to handle SARS cases will begin to accept suspected SARS patients in two weeks when its 44 negative pressure rooms are ready.
The 10 hospitals assigned to accommodate suspected SARS patients are the Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital and the Sungshan Military Hospital in Taipei City, Sanchung Hospital in Taipei County, the Taichung Military Hospital and Chunghsing Hospital in central Taiwan, the Tainan Military Hospital, Pingtung Military Hospital and Chishan Hospital in southern Taiwan, and the Hualien Military Hospital and Taitung Hospital in eastern Taiwan.
These hospitals will only handle suspected SARS cases, while the more critical probable SARS patients will be treated by research hospitals.
Since many of the hospitals do not have doctors specializing in infectious diseases or the respiratory system, the medical authorities are arranging special training programs for doctors and nurses.
Meanwhile, in Kaohsiung City, the city government has coordinated with the military to set up a suspected SARS-patient screening unit at a barracks for marines at Tsoying. The 41 negative pressure rooms, to be ready today, will accommodate patients transferred from nearby hospitals, although critical SARS patients will not be accepted.
Serving as a mid-way house for suspected SARS patients, the screening unit will only treat suspected SARS patients. Should a patient's situation deteriorate, the unit will transfer the patient to a research hospital.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese