The Medtecs Group (美德醫療集團) and a charity foundation affiliated with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are to deliver thousands of sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help diplomatic allies and nations friendly toward Taiwan protect themselves from COVID-19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
With the assistance of the government, the TSMC Charity Foundation and Medtecs yesterday began shipping the PPE to Eswatini, Saint Lucia and Somaliland, the ministry said in a news release.
Gathered by the enterprises’ charitable funds, the PPE batches include 150,000 masks, 6,000 sets of caps and shoe covers, 7,000 protective coveralls, 11,000 medical gowns and 1,500 gowns for airline passengers, the ministry said, adding that the PPE would be distributed to local governments, medical facilities and disadvantaged groups.
Last year, the TSMC charitable fund distinguished itself by leading private-sector efforts to supply frontline medical workers in Taiwan and other countries with PPE, it said.
The two enterprises also provided Taiwan’s diplomatic staff and their families with air travel gowns, it added.
The ministry thanked the private sector for assisting the government in realizing the “Taiwan can help” diplomatic vision, saying that Taiwan is helping by ensuring that its friends can fight the virus.
In related news, King Mswati III of Eswatini said that he recovered from COVID-19 after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) sent him antiviral medication.
The kingdom in southern Africa, formerly known as Swaziland, is Taiwan’s only remaining diplomatic ally on the continent, and Taipei has provided it with considerable aid.
The kingdom is still waiting for vaccines to arrive, the king said in a speech on Friday, adding that he tested positive for COVID-19 for “a couple of days” at the beginning of last month, but that he is negative now.
“I am grateful to the president of the Republic of China on Taiwan for sending through this medication to treat me,” he said, using Taiwan’s formal name in the speech, which was posted on the kingdom’s official Twitter account.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that upon hearing that the king had contracted COVID-19, Tsai arranged medical assistance for him.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is gratified to hear that the king of Eswatini successfully recovered under care from Taiwanese and Swazi medical personnel,” Ou said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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