Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday joined online educational platform Hahow with a video about disease prevention, in which he shares his views on Taiwan’s experience containing COVID-19, what to do in face of the pandemic and future developments of the disease.
The 45-minute online course would be free and open to everyone, Chen wrote on Facebook, inviting the public to sign up.
The unique characteristic of COVID-19 is that it has no distinctive symptom and that its infectivity is strong, said Chen, an epidemiologist by training.
Photo grab from a video on Hahow’s Web site
Without vaccines, rapid test kits or related medication, it is imperative to quarantine all known cases, something Taiwan has done quite well, he said.
It is not necessary for Taiwan to conduct universal screening for the novel coronavirus, as Taiwan, unlike South Korea, has had relatively few confirmed infections, Chen said.
Taiwan’s screening ratio and coverage trails only those of the United Arab Emirates and Russia, demonstrating that its screening plan is appropriate, he said.
Chen called on the public not to judge people returning from areas hard-hit by COVID-19 or who have tested positive after being in close proximity to known cases.
“They needed to travel abroad or were exposed to family members; we should be understanding and have empathy,” he said.
No nation can face the danger posed by COVID-19 alone and the global community must band together, Chen said.
It is based on this idea that Taiwan has begun helping other nations, he said, quoting President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) slogan: “Taiwan can help, Taiwan is helping.”
As for future developments of the disease, Chen said that it would be difficult to eradicate the coronavirus from the world, but, like influenza, Taiwan would be equipped to deal with it.
For that to happen, vaccines, medication targeting the coronavirus and rapid test kits must be developed, he said.
Viable test kits could hit the market within three months, while drugs — after undergoing clinical trials — could be available within the next six months, Chen said, but added that vaccine development would perhaps need another year to a year and a half.
Until then, quarantine efforts are the best option to give Taiwan more time, he said.
Chen holds a doctorate in epidemiology and human genetics from Johns Hopkins University. He also served as vice president of Academia Sinica.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
RSS