HEALTH
Monkeypox case reported
A second monkeypox case was reported yesterday after a man declared symptoms of the disease when arriving from the US, said the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The patient, a 30-year-old Taiwanese, visited the US from May to this month and began experiencing symptoms — swelling of the testes, running a fever, swollen lymph nodes in the groin, rashes and diarrhea — as early as July 3, the CDC said. The global monkeypox outbreak, with the first cases reported in the UK in May, has amounted to 9,664 confirmed cases. Taiwan has reported two imported cases of the disease. South Korea has reported one imported case of monkeypox, while Singapore has reported three imported cases and one domestic. The CDC said it has issued a category 2 travel alert for 49 nations, adding that Taiwanese who visit these nations should avoid social contact as much as possible. The CDC added that it is stepping up measures to procure vaccines.
EDUCATION
NTU candidates unveiled
National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Presidential Election Committee yesterday announced the final roster of nine candidates to head the nation’s most prestigious university for the next four years. The nine candidates are all NTU faculty — head of the office of research and development Lee Pai-chi (李百祺); former acting president Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維); College of Engineering dean Chen Wen-chang (陳文章); College of Law professor Chen Tsung-fu (陳聰富); College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science dean Chang Yao-wen (張耀文); NTU Hospital Yunlin branch superintendent Hwang Juey-jen (黃瑞仁); Department of Library and Information Science professor Huang Mu-hsuan (黃慕瑄); Department of Electrical Engineering professor Benson Yeh (葉丙成); and NTU Cancer Center superintendent James Yang (楊志新). The committee said the candidates would be invited to give a speech on their vision for NTU starting late next month and the University Affairs Committee would begin accepting recommendations and endorsements for the candidates in early September. The University Affairs Committee would complete background checks on candidates in September, meet and discuss with candidates at length their ideas on running the university, and arrange one-on-one interviews with the candidates starting in October. The university expects to have a president-elect by Oct. 8, it added.
HEALTH
Taipei to roll out kids’ jabs
Taipei began accepting online appointments yesterday for COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 6 months to 5 years, in preparation for the rollout of the Moderna brand for that age group next week. About 8,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine for young children are available on the city’s booking Web site through 5pm today and vaccinations are to begin on Thursday next week, said Chang Hui-mei (張惠美), a section head in the Taipei Department of Health. Appointments can also be made at 12 hospitals in Taipei, which would be offering 1,000 shots for young children, also starting on Thursday next week, she said. In addition to the Moderna vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 is to be administered from Monday next week to July 24, she said. The current round of reservations also includes 62,000 doses of the Novavax, Medigen and Pfizer-BNT vaccines for adults and children, she said. As of Monday, 91.39 percent of the population had received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, including 76.0 percent in the 5-to-11 age group.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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