The COVID-19 situation in Taiwan is far from necessitating a lockdown, but advance preparation and drills are necessary, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), first made the remarks at a morning news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei and repeated them at the CECC’s daily news briefing in the afternoon.
A cluster of 28 cases have been found in the crew members of the navy supply ship Panshih (磐石) over the past five days, and more than 90 locations in 10 cities and counties visited by the infected crew from Wednesday to Saturday last week were published, causing public concern over community spread.
Chen yesterday said the cluster was an emergency situation and everyone should stay vigilant, but no domestic cases have been reported in Taiwan for 10 consecutive days.
“Considering the global and domestic disease situations, as well as the control over emergency situations, it is not the time to implement a lockdown in Taiwan,” he said. “Everyone should be cautious, but we are far from implementing a lockdown.”
His remark came in response to a media inquiry about Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) on Tuesday saying that if the cluster were to spread to local communities, he would consider canceling the Workers’ Day long weekend next week or even ordering a lockdown if the situation got worse.
Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) also said that if the disease situation became unstable in Taiwan, she would not rule out the possibility of cooperating with the CECC on ordering a lockdown in the county.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said ordering a lockdown in Taipei would be difficult, as it would involve central government buildings in the city, but the city government plans to hold a tabletop exercise to simulate its response to a lockdown next week.
At the CECC in the afternoon, Chen said some local governments have concerns and they intend to protect their residents, but added that he thinks the decision should be made based on scientific evidence.
“While Taiwan has not reported a domestic case for 10 consecutive days, it is more important to discuss how enhancing disease prevention targeted at those who have had direct contact with confirmed cases,” he said. “It is a little too early to be discussing a lockdown.”
However, Chen said that advance preparation for different stages of disease outbreak is necessary, and that the CECC would provide guidelines to local governments on how to prepare for the three stages — the transition/persuasion period, the alert period and the control period — adding that they can discuss any problems with the center.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS