Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday announced his resignation, saying that he was standing down to focus on his Taipei mayoral campaign ahead of the Nov. 26 election.
Chen, who on Wednesday was selected as the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, told a Cabinet news conference in Taipei that he had submitted his letter of resignation to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday morning.
Chen said that he would stay on as health minister until a successor is named, adding that he would also resign from his duties as head of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Photo: CNA
Chen, who became health minister in 2017, rose to prominence as the face of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, hosting the center’s daily news briefings.
The center had worked tirelessly to fight COVID-19 over the past two years, Chen said, adding that he was confident his replacement would lead the team with similar vigor.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that the Cabinet would announce Chen’s replacement as soon as a decision is made.
Anonymous Cabinet sources on Wednesday said that the government was expected to name Chen’s replacement in one week.
Chen, 68, was a dentist before being appointed deputy minister of the then-Department of Health in 2005.
He has never run for government office, but his central role in leading the nation’s COVID-19 response has transformed him into a hopeful to lead the capital.
Chen’s entry into the Taipei mayoral race has been heavily criticized by opposition parties such as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which said that Chen would be abandoning his post while the nation continues to deal with COVID-19.
In the mayoral race, Chen is to face KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), and possibly Deputy Taipei Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), who has yet to announce her election bid, as a candidate for the Taiwan People’s Party.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash