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.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
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
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS