title: Virus Outbreak: CECC confirms 10 new imported cases

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HOME COMFORTS:
 Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung urged people not to put themselves and others in Taiwan at risk by making unnecessary trips overseas

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced 10 more confirmed cases of COVID-19, all Taiwanese who have returned from overseas, bringing the total number of cases in the nation to 77.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said six of the new cases had joined tour groups to other nations, while the other four traveled overseas on their own.

The 68th, 69th, 70th and 73rd cases were in a tour group that visited Turkey from March 4 to Friday last week — the same group as four confirmed cases on Sunday and Monday, Chen said, adding that nine people in the 15-person group had tested positive for COVID-19.

A set of Line stickers by eight popular cartoonists is pictured in an undated photograph. The Ministry of Health and Welfare collaborated with Line Corp to release the free stickers yesterday to educate the public about COVID-19 prevention.
 Photo courtesy of Line Corp

The 71st case is a man who joined a tour of Egypt from March 3 to Thursday last week, along with two confirmed cases on Sunday and Monday, he said.

The 72nd case is a woman who was in the same tour group to Austria and the Czech Republic from March 5 to Saturday last week as a case reported on Monday, he added.

The 74th case is a man in his 30s who visited Iceland with seven friends from Feb. 25 to Tuesday last week; the 75th case is a man in his 20s who visited Germany independently from Feb. 23 to March 8, Chen said.

The 76th case is a woman in her 30s who visited Paris with two friends from March 1 to Thursday last week, while the 77th case is a woman who traveled to the Czech Republic via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Jan. 20, visited family in New York on March 7, then returned to Taiwan on Monday, he said.

The CECC said that of the 77 confirmed cases in Taiwan, 50 were imported and 27 were locally transmitted infections.

In related news, more than 500 students at a university in southern Taiwan received a text message from the school’s academic affairs office early yesterday morning informing them that a suspected COVID-19 case had been detected on campus and that they should not attend school.

It said seven university courses would be conducted online and instructed those who received the message to perform self-health management by wearing a mask when going out and taking their temperature daily.

Asked if one of yesterday’s confirmed cases was a student at the university, Ministry of Education Department of Higher Education Deputy Director-General Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said the 75th case is a student at the university, but that he had reported his travel history to the university administration and had not entered the campus since returning from overseas.

However, the man had dined with two of his classmates outside campus, so as soon as he tested positive, the university decided to take disease-prevention measures by asking students to stay at home, moving their courses online and disinfecting the campus, he said.

“We urge students who have returned from overseas to report their travel history to their school,” Chu said.

“In the past three days, we have urged people not to travel abroad during this extremely difficult situation,” Chen said.

“Please do not put yourself at risk by making unnecessary trips overseas and [risk] bringing danger back to Taiwan,” he added.

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title: Far EasTone says 5G profits to take longer than planned

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Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said that given heavy 5G spectrum costs, it would take longer than expected to see a positive contribution from 5G services on its balance sheet.

Far EasTone originally forecast that 5G services would make a positive contribution one to two years after launch, which is scheduled for the third quarter, Far EasTone president Chee Ching (井琪) said.

Ching said she now expects it to take longer than two years.

Far EasTone Telecommunications Co president Chee Ching talks to reporters about the company’s 5G development at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times

The telecom secured 80 megahertz (MHz) in the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) band of the 5G spectrum and 400MHz in the 28GHz band at a combined cost of NT$43.04 billion (US$1.42 billion).

The nation’s four telecom operators spent a total of NT$142.19 billion on the 5G spectrum — the third-highest in the world, National Communications Commission data showed.

Far EasTone expects 5G services to boost the company’s average revenue per user mildly this year, Ching said, adding that the effect would magnify next year.

Based on the initial construction plan it submitted to the commission for review, Far EasTone plans to build 6,000 5G base stations in the next five years.

That would cost about NT$18 billion, the company said.

“This is a very conservative [estimate],” Ching said. “We will be more aggressive than that.”

Far EasTone plans to install more than 6,000 5G base stations to have wider coverage and quality Internet access, she said, adding that the company installed more than 10,000 4G base stations before offering its 4G services in 2014.

With better consumer readiness, Far EasTone expects about 20 to 25 percent of local 4G users to upgrade to 5G in the 12 months following the launch, faster than the 12 to 15 percent reported in South Korea, Far EasTone vice president T.Y. Yin (尹德洋) said.

South Korea launched 5G services in April last year, he added.

Aside from new 5G applications, smartphone replacement demand would stimulate the 5G adoption rate as well, Yin said.

Most mobile users who subscribed to the NT$499 monthly flat rate in 2018 are to renew their contracts in November, he said, adding that they are also likely to buy new phones as the old rate plans were not bundled with a subsidized handset.

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title: POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS: TAIPEI Act awaits Trump’s signature

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The US’ Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019 was on Monday delivered to US President Donald Trump to be signed into law after it was passed by both chambers of the US Congress.

According to US legislative procedure, a bill passed by the Congress must be presented to the president, who then has 10 days to consider whether to approve it.

Bills that are neither signed nor vetoed by the president within 10 days automatically become law, even without the president’s signature.

Excluding holidays, Trump has until Thursday next week to sign or veto the act.

The US Senate on Wednesday last week unanimously passed the act that aims to shore up up Taiwan’s international presence.

According to Senate rules, unanimous consensus is a situation in which no senator present objects to a proposal and a senator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule or procedure so as to expedite proceedings.

The US House of Representatives on March voted 415-0 in favor of the act.

The bill was introduced to the Senate by US Senator Cory Gardner in May last year, while US Representative John Curtis, a Republican, put forth a similar version to the House in October.

The act authorizes the US Department of State to consider “reducing its economic, security and diplomatic engagements with nations that take serious or significant actions to undermine Taiwan.”

It also calls on the US government to help Taiwan gain participation in international organizations, either as a member or an observer, and to express support for Taiwan’s international participation whenever it has discussions with China.

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WARNING:
 It was the first time Chinese warplanes were spotted close to Taiwan’s air defense identification zone at night, before Taiwanese F-16 jets drove them away

The air force on Monday scrambled to warn off approaching Chinese jets, the first time they were spotted near Taiwan’s air space at night, the Ministry of National Defense said.

Taiwan has repeatedly said that China has stepped up its drills near the nation when it should be focusing its efforts on combating the spread of COVID-19.

An unspecified number of Chinese J-11 fighters and KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft flew into the waters southwest of Taiwan for nighttime exercises, the ministry said late on Monday.

A handout photo made available by the Ministry of National Defense shows a Chinese H-6 bomber, bottom, flying over the Bashi Channel near Taiwan, as a Taiwanese F-16, top, approaches, before the Chinese aircraft returned to its base via the Miyako Strait on Feb. 10.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

They came close to Taiwan’s air defense identification zone at about 7pm, ministry spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said.

“After our air reconnaissance and patrol aircraft responded appropriately, and broadcast [an order] to drive them away, the [Chinese] communist aircraft flew away from our air defense identification zone,” he said.

The maneuvers were part of the Chinese squadron’s nighttime training mission, the ministry said.

The military keeps close watch on the Taiwan Strait and its environs to ensure the nation’s security, and people have no cause for alarm, it said.

The last time that the Chinese military conducted a similar mission near Taiwan’s airspace was on Feb. 28, when an unspecified number of Chinese H-6 bombers flew over the waters southwest of Taiwan, according to ministry records.

There was no immediate comment from China’s military on the latest drills.

China has been flying what it calls “island encirclement” drills on and off since 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) first took office.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened already poor relations between Taiwan and China, with the two sides accusing each other of spreading fake news, and Taiwan particularly angered by Beijing blocking its access to the WHO.

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title: Chinese warplanes approach Taiwan at night


title: German firms feeling the pinch at local operations

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NOT ALL BAD:
 German companies were happy with the government’s disease prevention measures and none were planning to lay off staff, a survey found

German companies operating in Taiwan have started to feel the pinch from COVID-19, with 50 percent looking at a 10 percent revenue decline in the first half of this year, a survey by the German Trade Office Taipei showed yesterday.

The coronavirus pandemic has weighed on the local operations of German companies as seen in softening demand for products and services, as well as canceled company events and participation in trade fairs, the survey conducted from March 3 to March 6 found.

The survey indicated a further decline in confidence among German firms, which last month anticipated a global slowdown for this year. The situation has worsened amid the spreading pandemic.

Deutsche Bank’s Taipei branch is pictured yesterday. A survey conducted by the German Trade Office Taipei shows that 62.8 percent of German companies’ activities in Taiwan have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
 Photo: CNA

Most German companies in Taiwan are small or medium-sized enterprises in the machinery equipment, logistics, and sales and marketing sectors.

Decreased demand was identified as the top challenge at 67.7 percent, followed by canceled company events and participation in trade fairs at 63.1 percent, the survey found.

Against that backdrop, 50 percent of the companies said that they expected revenue to drop at least 10 percent in the first half of the year and 35.9 percent said they would lower their business targets.

Only a minor 2.6 percent said that the outbreak would not have any effect on their business, while 32.1 percent said that it was too early to size up the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis.

Most firms, 60.3 percent, expressed the hope that the Taiwanese government would provide health-protection equipment such as masks, but said they were aware that this demand could be difficult to fulfill in times of supply shortages.

The companies also welcomed financial support measures, such as tax reductions and temporary wage compensation, to help them offset negative economic effects, the survey showed.

However, the German firms showed a high degree of confidence in Taiwan’s crisis management, it found.

More than 87 percent of the companies were satisfied with the crisis management of Taiwanese authorities, office Executive Director Axel Limberg said.

German companies believe in the effectiveness of the guidelines and measures taken by the Taiwanese government, he said.

The vast majority of the companies have adopted measures to help prevent the spread of the virus and have prioritized the protection of their employees and customers, he added.

Most companies provide hand sanitizer and check the temperature of visitors and employees, the survey showed.

No German company was planning to lay off employees and none were dissatisfied with measures to combat the disease, Limberg said.

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Virus Outbreak: EU battles to forge common front as virus eats at unity

EU leaders were yesterday set to hold their second summit in two weeks in a fresh attempt to forge a joint response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Europe takes over from China as the front line in the fight against a disease claiming thousands of lives.

The virus case count in Europe has climbed to more than 50,000 and more than 2,000 people have died. The inexorable spread of the disease has roiled markets and sown public fear, but nervous governments have introduced quick-fix measures — partial border closures or quarantine — with little consultation.

After Italy, ground zero in Europe’s battle with COVID-19, Spain and now France have imposed lockdowns, confining people to their homes except for urgent business, such as buying food or heading to any hospital that might still have the capacity to treat them.

A bird flies over the empty Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris as France at midday yesterday imposed a lockdown to slow the rate of the COVID-19 contagion.
 Photo: Reuters

Seven countries have informed the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, that they have reintroduced ID checks inside Europe’s passport-free Schengen Area. Among them are Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, which all took unilateral action to halt the influx of migrants in 2015.

Indeed, it is a similar challenge that leaders are grappling with as they confront the coronavirus — how to ensure that the fraying solidarity among partners in the same European club does not completely unravel as the crisis deepens.

Asked on Monday whether Europe can ever return to real ID-check free travel after this, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “I hope so, but it’s been shown that coordination didn’t work well everywhere the way one would have hoped.”

The main problem confronting the leaders, as they meet in a virtual online videoconference from their offices in the bloc’s 27 capitals, is to halt the arrival of more virus cases, coordinate any border closures and guarantee that vital medical equipment and food can reach those in need.

They are expected to endorse a 30-day travel ban on people wanting to come to Europe for tourism or non-essential business. Long-term EU residents, diplomats and members of European families would be exempt. Healthcare and transport workers could escape the ban, too.

Separately, so-called “green lanes” would be set up at the internal borders of the 26 Schengen countries, allowing fast-track access for trucks ferrying essential supplies to defy the traffic jams that have begun forming at some crossing points.

EU Council President Charles Michel, who was to chair the summit, said the aim was “to reduce unnecessary movement, but at the same time to ensure the movement of merchandise, of goods, so that we can guarantee as much as possible the integrity of the single market, guarantee the deliveries that are needed.”

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title: The UK should abandon Huawei

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Since 2016, Britain has been blindsighted by Brexit. The government, politicians and the media have been unable to speak of little else. Britons have all been bleating on about their future relationship with the EU. That has all changed. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, fresh from a sensational election victory, has delivered on his campaign promise to get Brexit done.

The nation can divert its gaze, if only temporarily, from Brussels to Beijing. In the post-Brexit world, the conventional wisdom has been that London would turbo-charge its efforts to forge a tight economic partnership with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

This would not be an unreasonable assumption to make. The desire to establish a “golden era” in relations between the two countries precedes the decision to leave the EU. Back in 2015, then-British chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, the architect of this lofty tagline, vowed to “make Britain China’s best partner in the West.”

This came after years of trade delegations to China, new government people-to-people schemes and scores of slobbering ministers sent over to Shanghai on the proviso that they would keep quiet on the human rights front.

All of this happened under the leadership of then-British prime minister David Cameron, who, when it comes to China, and much else, is without a doubt Britain’s most sycophantic prime minister. In 2013, his shamelessness hit a new low: After Beijing gave him the cold shoulder following his meeting with the Dalai Lama, he promised never to meet Tibet’s spiritual leader again.

When Cameron said his China policy was “looking to the future,” all Britons knew what he meant — and, more importantly, knew what he was not looking at, such as the issue of political prisoners.

His deference paid off and two years later, he was granted the pleasure of being pictured, a pint in one hand and a plate of fish-n-chips in the other, with then-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping (習近平).

The desire to tap into the PRC’s market is an understandable temptation. The statistics speak for themselves. If Western leaders are happy to put their morals to one side — assuming they have some in the first place — then Beijing can offer them plenty, including the opportunity to build infrastructure quickly and cheaply.

This is a tempting offer for Johnson, no doubt. As mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, he was gung-ho for big building projects. From new bridges to new airports, Johnson wanted it.

Now he wants to “level up” the UK and he is going to need some help, especially if he wants to make an impact before the next British general election.

So far, during his time in office, there has been talk of China’s state railway company constructing Britain’s high-speed rail system, as well as praise for Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative from Johnson himself.

Yet none of this has been as worrying as the government’s decision to allow Huawei Technologies to help develop the UK’s 5G capacity.

Huawei is the only game in town when it comes to speeding up the country’s Internet connectivity, the British government has said, but this comes with security risks.

As the British Parliament’s own Intelligence and Security Committee has noted, Huawei is not a normal company. Unlike the Nokias and Ericssons of this world, Huawei has deep ties to the CCP. Involving a company with this sort of relationship in the building of Britain’s 5G infrastructure heightens the risk of espionage and sabotage — a point made by Britain’s fellow Five Eye intelligence allies, Australia and the US.

Beijing’s 2017 national intelligence law requiring individuals and organizations to cooperate with China’s intelligence agencies only compounds fears.

While the British government has ignored these warnings, trouble has been brewing on the backbenches. The campaign against Huawei, led by the former leader of the Conservative Party, has attracted prominent supporters including the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, former high-ranking ministers and a former first secretary of state (Britain’s de facto deputy prime minister).

On two occasions so far this month, this security-conscious squad has taken the opportunity to register their concerns in the parliamentary record.

On Tuesday last week, group members, alongside 38 fellow Conservative members of parliament, rebelled against the government’s defeated whip. Although defeated, Johnson’s majority does not seem as large and, what is more, this story is far from over.

The trade-off between pursuing an ethical foreign policy and increasing trade with the PRC has long been known, but it is only in recent years that the security implications of getting into bed with Beijing have been properly discussed.

For decades Britain has been complacent about the rise of China and Johnson’s administration appears no different, but it is not too late. The government still has time to listen to the growing grumbles from its own backbenches and ditch Huawei.

Gray Sergeant is a British writer focusing on East Asian politics.

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title: Virus Outbreak: G7 pledge to work together to help economy

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Leaders of the G7 industrial powerhouses on Monday pledged to join forces to halt economic freefall in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which they called “a human tragedy.”

US President Donald Trump later acknowledged that the US economy “may be” headed into a recession.

As the outbreak caused more countries to shut down and brought the global economy to a screeching halt, the leaders stressed the need to join forces and move quickly to address the damage.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy and a global health crisis, which also poses major risks for the world economy,” a joint statement from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US said.

“We resolve to coordinate measures and do whatever it takes, using all policy tools, to achieve strong growth in the G7 economies and to safeguard against downside risks,” the leaders said in a statement after an emergency video conference.

The measures aim to “support immediately and as much as necessary the workers, companies and sectors most affected,” the statement said.

The G7 likewise said that it would work together on “border management” following the drastic curtailment of movement across borders in an effort to slow the spread of the illness.

With market sell-offs triggered by mass quarantines and travel restrictions, governments in the world’s wealthiest countries are under pressure to show they can control the situation.

Trump told reporters at the White House the effects could wash through the economy by July or August or it “could be longer than that.”

However, Trump, who frequently uses the stock market as a bellwether of his presidency, said that markets could see “a tremendous surge,” once authorities gain the upper hand in the battle with the virus, which he called “an invisible army.”

The G7 leaders instructed their finance ministers to consult weekly to implement policy measures and “develop further timely and effective actions.”

Health ministers would likewise talk weekly to try to coordinate information to the public, and medical know-how and equipment.

The G7 leaders noted the disruption to supply chains due to transportation shutdowns, as well as the harm to families.

They called on global institutions such as the IMF to “swiftly” deploy financial assistance to countries that need it.

“We are committed to working together with resolve to implement these measures to respond to this global emergency,” the leaders said, adding that they are “determined not only to restore the level of growth anticipated before the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to build the foundation for stronger future growth.”

In Washington, the White House called the video conference “historic” and said that the G7 leaders worked to “accelerate the national health and economic responses to the coronavirus pandemic in order to save lives and restore economic growth.”

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Virus Outbreak: France to mobilize 45bn euros, GDP could slump 1%

France plans to mobilize 45 billion euros (US$50 billion) in crisis measures to help its companies, with the economy likely to shrink 1 percent this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire said yesterday.

A large part of the 45 billion euro figure was the deferral of all tax payments and payroll charges that companies were due to pay this month and the cancellation of such payments for firms at risk of collapse, Le Maire said.

“We are going to mobilize 45 billion euros as our first immediate economic assistance to companies,” Le Maire told French RTL radio. “We don’t want bankruptcies.”

Pedestrians walk past a closed souvenir shop on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Monday.
 Photo: AFP

The money comes in addition to 300 billion euros in government loan guarantees that French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday, Le Maire said.

He said that he would produce a new budget bill “in a matter of hours” to reflect fallout from the virus and based on a forecast that the economy would contract 1 percent this year.

Asked whether the stock market should be closed in light of the economic turmoil, Le Maire said that there were other things that could be done first, such as banning short-selling, which he said the markets regulator was doing for 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Airbus SE is stopping production and assembly activities at its plants in France and Spain for the next four days, as governments there implement new measures to restrict movements and fight the coronavirus outbreak, the planemaker said yesterday.

The move appears to mark the most serious across-the-board disruption in Airbus production since a strike at then British partner BAE Systems PLC in 1989, apart from problems with individual programs such as the Airbus A380 or A400M military aircraft.

“This will allow sufficient time to implement stringent health and safety conditions in terms of hygiene, cleaning and self-distancing, while improving the efficiency of operations under the new working conditions,” Airbus said in a statement.

Reuters on Monday reported that Airbus had drawn up contingency plans to slow or stop production if France was placed under a drastic lockdown due to the virus.

France’s aerospace capital of Toulouse is home to Airbus’ largest assembly plants as well its headquarters.

Factories in Britain, where Airbus makes wings, or Germany, where it has its second-largest cluster of assembly lines, could continue to operate for several days, but the rate at which they will produce parts and assemble jets has not been announced.

Deliveries have already been disrupted as crisis-hit airlines hold back from taking possession of aircraft to conserve cash, industry sources say.

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people: 唐鳳 陳時中

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The COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread around the globe. While governments are striving to take effective prevention measures, Taiwan is being praised by foreign media for its quick reaction and effective prevention measures.

Taiwan has fever confirmed COVID-19 cases than neighboring countries, such as South Korea and Japan.

Countries facing a rapid increase of confirmed cases are suffering not only from public panic, but also from a shortage of masks.

However, Taiwan has shown outstanding leadership by urgently taking measures to address public fear and prevent people from stocking up masks.

Besides, Taiwan already blocked the entry of people from China before the circumstances were exacerbated, and cooperated with medical experts. The government was able to take action quickly, as the National Health Command Center (NHCC), which was established during the SARS outbreak, played a critical role in successfully handling COVID-19 related issues.

The government prohibited the export of masks just four days after identifying the first confirmed case and started to install additional mask production lines.

It implemented a mask rationing system and the state-owned Chunghwa Post has been delivering 3.96 million masks per day from 24 factories to 6,515 National Health Insurance (NHI)-contracted pharmacies across the country.

As Taiwan’s COVID-19 prevention measures are clearly taking effect, the world should refer to the following prevention measures taken by the government.

Taiwan started airport inspection of passengers coming from Wuhan, China, in the initial phase of the outbreak, from Hubei Province later in January and banned the entry of Chinese people from Feb. 7. Taiwanese passengers were placed under quarantine for 14 days.

It is a policy that might have a negative effect on cross-strait relations. However, the government made the decision to protect its citizens.

South Korea and Japan did not strictly control their borders in the initial stage, which is counted as one of the causes that increased the risk of COVID-19 spread.

In 2003, Taiwan suffered from the SARS outbreak. A year later, the government established the NHCC. Within the NHCC, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is one of the branches that coordinates with various ministries to enact policies and strategies regarding COVID-19.

It is led by Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), a physician, scientist and expert on infectious disease, and political interference is ruled out. The experience of dealing with SARS and the well-developed infrastructure of the CECC enabled a quick response to initial reports of COVID-19.

Along with a ban on mask exports, the government requested mask production factories to work around the clock and provided financial support to install additional production lines.

Taiwan provided personnel by deploying the military to mask production factories to help alleviate the shortage problem. Soldiers are also guarding the factories to prevent any attempts to smuggle products.

As the government took control of mask production and imposed a mask rationing system, which allows people to purchase a limited number of masks only at pharmacies using their NHI cards, mask-hoarding or smuggling did not happen in Taiwan.

The government purchased all the masks that were produced in Taiwan and lowered the price of masks. The original price of one mask was NT$8, which was lowered to NT$5.

That was possible because Chunghwa Post is in charge of distributing masks from 24 factories in 10 cities and counties to post offices for delivery. About 3,000 postal workers deliver masks that are to be sold at more than 6,000 locations nationwide.

Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), the government’s digital expert, has developed an online platform that contains more than 100 maps that provide real-time information about the availability of masks across Taiwan.

Starting on Thursday last week, people can also purchase masks online.

South Korea implemented a mask rationing system similar to Taiwan’s to prevent mask-hoarding.

However, it came only after the confirmed cases there increased exponentially and more than 100 countries banned flights from South Korea.

The South Korean government only banned flights from Hubei Province, and medical experts have strongly urged the government to ban all flights from China, which has not been accepted by the government.

However, as the number of confirmed cases is drastically increasing not only in Asia, but also in European countries and the US, it is becoming more clear that the world is under the influence of COVID-19.

It is high time that governments refrain from making decisions based on political calculation, every nation should prioritize citizens’ health and take preventive measures to fight against COVID-19. The world could learn from Taiwan’s COVID-19 prevention measures.

Taiwan can help.

Amber Kim is a student in National Chengchi University’s international master’s program in Asia-Pacific studies.

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title: The world can learn from Taiwan


content_text:
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday said that it would continue to hold more cash to protect against turmoil in the global financial markets, even though such a move would sacrifice its recurring yields.

That is a rare move, as life insurance companies tend to target bonds and stocks with higher investment returns, while holding onto the New Taiwan dollar or US dollar generates less returns.

“Sometimes we cannot only concentrate on the growth of recurring yields, as risk avoidance is more important amid such high uncertainties,” Cathay Life executive vice president Lin Chao-ting (林昭廷) told an investors’ conference in Taipei, citing recent stock market plunges in Taiwan and the US.

Last quarter, the insurer raised its cash holdings to NT$237 billion (US$7.8 billion), 3.7 percent of its total investment of NT$6.41 trillion, up from 2.6 percent a quarter earlier, and compared with average cash holdings of 1.3 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, company data showed.

Cathay Life slashed its holdings of domestic stocks by a full percentage point from the end of September last year to 5 percent as of the end of December, while trimming its holdings of foreign bonds from 60.3 percent to 58.9 percent, the data showed.

The insurer would continue adjusting its portfolio this year, preferring cash and bonds with an “AA” rating and bypassing some “BBB-” rated bonds, Lin said.

The company’s pre-hedging recurring yield is forecast to drop slightly from 3.65 percent last year as a result, he said.

However, after-hedging recurring yield is likely to remain flat from last year and could even improve a little bit, thanks to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts, which helped narrow the difference between Taiwan’s and the US’ benchmark rates, thus reducing its hedging cost, he said.

The cost of currency swaps has slid from 1.5 percent last year to less than 1 percent after the Fed’s action, he added.

However, if Taiwan’s central bank cuts the benchmark rates tomorrow as expected, the hedging cost would rise, Lin said.

Cathay Life gained cash dividend income of NT$24.7 billion from equity investments in Taiwan last year, up 2 percent from a year earlier, but it holds a conservative outlook for this year.

“It is not our goal to gain as much in cash dividends as last year, as the market is really volatile, but there would be a buying opportunity when the outbreak is contained, and we would invest in good companies,” Lin said.

Meanwhile, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) said that for every 25 basis points the central bank cuts rates, its net interest margin — a critical gauge of its profitability — would drop by 2 basis points, Cathay Financial Holding Co’s (國泰金控) spokesman Daniel Teng (鄧崇儀) said.

To avoid risk and increase the net interest margin, the bank would concentrate on providing foreign currency-denominated loans and NT dollar loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and personal borrowers, as they provide better profit, Teng said.

“Overall, we are more prepared to address the virus’ effects compared with how we were in the financial crisis,” Cathay Financial president Lee Chang-ken (李長庚) said.

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title: Cathay Life to hold more cash amid pandemic


content_text:
By Chang Tsung-chiu
and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer
and CNA

The Ministry of Labor (MOL) yesterday introduced two new disease prevention measures governing migrant workers in cooperation with the Central Epidemic Command Center to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

To minimize cross-border exchanges of personnel, the ministry called on employers to hire migrant workers who are already in Taiwan and not seek new ones from overseas, Deputy Minister of Labor Lin San-quei (林三貴) said.

About 100,000 migrant workers change employers in Taiwan each year, providing an ample supply of personnel, he said, adding that most are from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

The ministry is to give a three-month extension to migrant workers whose permits are expiring, Lin said, adding that migrant workers at factories can remain in the nation for up to 12 years and caregivers 14 years.

Employers should advise migrant workers to cancel or delay any scheduled travel to their home nations, he said, adding that the ministry would use the Employment Security Fund to compensate for relevant expenses.

Workers who insist on returning to their home countries would be banned from re-entering Taiwan until the epidemic has been brought under control, he said.

Employers should take responsibility for the health management of migrant workers, he added.

The ministry is to replace lectures at airports for migrant workers with online versions and give them free masks upon entry so they can have protection before acquiring a work permit, Lin said.

Separately, some factories in Changhua County have required staff returning from Southeast Asia to self-manage their health for 14 days to minimize the potential of spreading COVID-19.

Current policies do not require people returning from Southeast Asian countries to undergo 14-day home quarantine, which has raised concern among some businesses, as up to 58,000 migrant workers from the region work in the county.

There are between 15,000 and 16,000 registered factories in the county, and if one factory worker contracts the coronavirus, the entire factory’s staff and their families would have to be tested and placed under 14-day home quarantine, which would halt operations, one factory owner said.

Some firms in traditional industries, such as plumbing, plastic injection molding and electroplating, have required their staff to remain in the nation in the short term unless there is an urgent need, sources said.

About 20 percent of Southeast Asian migrant workers in the county are caregivers, with the remainder working in factories, Changhua Department of Labor Affairs Director-General Wu Lan-mei (吳蘭梅) said.

Workers required to monitor their health for 14 days should still receive wages, Wu said, advising factory owners to negotiate with their workers to weather the difficulties together.

Changhua Public Health Bureau Director Yeh Yen-po (葉彥伯) said that employers have a legal basis to enforce strict disease prevention efforts, such as demanding that employees who return from abroad wear a mask or separating them from other staff to reduce the chances of direct exposure.

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title: Virus Outbreak: MOL unveils migrant worker measures


content_text:
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS: MOFA says ambassador to Haiti has returned to Taiwan, reaffirms ties

Ambassador to Haiti Bernard Liu (劉邦治) has returned to Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, reaffirming bilateral relations amid media reports that the diplomatic ally has demanded a new ambassador.

The Caribbean country, with a population of nearly 11 million, was named by the South China Morning Post as Beijing’s next target, after the Solomon Islands and Kiribati switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing in September last year.

Taiwan has 15 remaining allies.

Liu was expelled from Haiti due to “a small incident” related to national sovereignty, the French-language news outlet Haiti24.net reported on Friday last week, quoting Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Claude Joseph as saying that Haitian President Jovenel Moise is waiting for a new ambassador.

Without going into details about the incident, Joseph said Taiwan-Haiti relations remain intact, the outlet reported.

Liu had a quarrel with Moise and was asked to leave the country in 72 hours, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported on Saturday.

Asked about the issue during a news briefing in Taipei yesterday, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) said that Taiwan is communicating with Haiti about some issues.

It is an ongoing process and does not touch on bilateral ties, Yui said.

The nation highly values its ties with Haiti, so the ministry has asked Liu to explain the situation “for related matters,” he said, without explaining what the “related matters” are.

China has never ceased in its attempts to poach Taiwan’s allies or reduce Taiwan’s global space, even when cross-strait relations appeared to be more peaceful, he added.

As ambassador to Haiti for a second time, Liu is familiar with Haiti’s situation and has defended Taiwan’s stance and principles during negotiations, a source familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

Liu did not really leave Haiti in the 72-hour period as ordered, and diplomatic courtesy was still observed during his departure, the source said.

He left in January, but the matter was not revealed until last week, they added.

Taiwan’s project to help the country build electrical grids with a loan of US$150 million has not yet been approved by the Haitian government, but the nation would not change its commitment to helping improve the life of regular Haitians, the source said.

Taiwan is also following through on its promise to donate rice to Haiti in batches, but the total amount planned — more than 20,000 tonnes — might be halved, as the ally is not able to take in so much rice, the source added.

When Liu might return to Haiti has yet to be determined, but he remains the nation’s ambassador to Haiti at present, the source said.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Group says 182 tourists stuck in Morocco, Peru

The Taipei Association of Travel Agents yesterday confirmed that 103 Taiwanese tourists were stranded in Morocco and 79 in Peru after both countries enforced travel restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Travel agents held an emergency meeting with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism Bureau yesterday afternoon to discuss options for repatriating the tourists, association chairman Wu Chih-chien (吳志健) said.

Tour guides were trying to take tourists stranded in Morocco to Paris, Frankfurt, Germany, or any other European airports that have connecting flights to Taiwan, Wu said.

The tourists in Peru were staying in hotels because of a curfew, Wu said, adding that tour guides were finding ways to take them to Chile’s capital, Santiago, to fly to a US airport before returning to Taiwan.

“One of the travel agencies told us in the meeting that it has a tour group in Peru whose members are mostly older. One of the tourists is 87 years old, and has a chronic disease and was only carrying medicine for 18 days,” Wu said, adding that the ministry is exploring all diplomatic channels to repatriate the tourists as soon as possible.

The ministry and the bureau were also negotiating with the Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based airline Emirates about the possibility of bringing back tourists on a charter flight, as the tourists in Morocco are all scheduled to return to Taiwan on Emirates flights, Wu said.

As Taiwan has no representative office in Morocco, the nation’s affairs are covered by the ministry’s representative offices in France and the UAE.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, travel agents have to cope with the possibility of daily changes to travel advisories, Wu said, adding that the safety of tourists is travel agents’ top priority.

Travel agents would follow the disease prevention instructions from the Central Epidemic Command Center, he said.

Morocco on Sunday unexpectedly announced that it was closing its air and sea borders due to the spread of COVID-19. Peru has deployed military personnel on the streets and imposed a curfew.

A source within the association said that 11 tourists in Morocco have rebooked a return flight with Oman Air that was scheduled to arrive in Taipei last night.

Whether they succeeded in boarding the flight was uncertain, the source said.

Earlier yesterday, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) said that eight Taiwanese tourists have not been able to leave Argentina, citing numbers obtained from travel agencies and the nation’s representative office in the South American nation.

The representative office in Argentina has established contact with the stranded Taiwanese and is trying to find a way to get them home, he said.

However, despite the office’s best efforts, the tourists might have to remain abroad until border control measures are lifted, he added.

Travelers in other Latin American and Caribbean countries face similar difficulties, as the coronavirus is spreading quickly, Yui said, advising Taiwanese to refrain from visiting the regions to avoid inconvenience.

Twelve Latin American and Caribbean countries have banned or are to ban the entry of foreign nationals: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru and Jamaica, he said.

The ministry yesterday raised its travel alert for Peru and Argentina to “orange,” the second-highest level on its four-color scale, urging Taiwanese to avoid unnecessary trips to those countries.

Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan and CNA

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title: Virus Outbreak: Officials to assess holding conference

content_text:
SILVER LINING:
 The government’s response has created an opportunity to show the world what it is missing by excluding the nation from the WHO, Charles Chen said

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that he would ask government officials to assess the possibility of holding an online conference with international disease prevention experts to pass on the nation’s methods for containing COVID-19.

Su made the remark when asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) whether Taiwan — which last month participated remotely in a WHO forum on critical research and the development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics — could convene an online conference on ways to contain the novel coronavirus.

As Taiwan has been the most successful nation in limiting the spread of the virus, the government could help other nations by inviting international disease prevention experts to participate in the conference, Chen said.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Ching-cheng participates in a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

The nation should capitalize on the opportunity with its first-rate disease prevention experts, such as Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), who excels at holding online conferences, he said.

The nation should “show the world its loss for excluding [Taiwan] from the WHO,” he added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week asked Chen Shih-chung to educate Taiwan’s foreign representatives on the nation’s disease prevention efforts in the hope of sharing such information with other nations, but the move would likely not be effective, as diplomats are not disease prevention specialists, Charles Chen said.

Convening an online conference on containing the virus would give the nation a perfect opportunity to raise its international profile and make its greatest contribution yet to global public health, he said.

Asked whether he was willing to test the proposal, Su said: “Yes.”

Charles Chen also requested that Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) identify who was in charge of negotiations for a second set of charter flights that evacuated 361 Taiwanese from Wuhan, China.

Chen Ming-tong declined to comment on the details of the negotiations out of concern that it could affect talks on further efforts to bring back Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan.

The council would take lawmakers’ questions after all negotiations have ended, he said.

Su said that the negotiations were not conducted between the governments on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, but by “relevant parties” acting on the governments’ instructions.

“We hoped to bring back our people, and we did, after many twists and turns… We hope to bring back many more people, so we will not reveal too much” about the negotiations, he said.

When told by Charles Chen that many people were “disheartened” after it took the government more than a month to arrange the second set of evacuation flights, Su said: “That is the result of ‘the other side’ insisting on this and that, which gave us a lot of trouble.”

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people: 陳明通 蘇貞昌 陳以信 唐鳳 陳時中


content_text:
Lugang Township man detained for beating death of four-year-old stepson
By Tang Shih-ming, Chen Kuan-pei and William Hetherington / Staff reporters, with staff writer

A Changhua County man is in custody after allegedly beating his four-year-old stepson so badly on Saturday that the boy later died, police said yesterday.

A Lugang Township (鹿港) resident surnamed Chen (陳), 34, allegedly ordered the youngest son of his wife, surnamed Hsieh (謝), to kneel so that he could beat him with a broom after the boy refused to eat, the police said.

The boy was “beaten until he vomited,” the police said.

After the boy woke up at 4am on Sunday and began crying, Chen allegedly threw him into the street outside the family’s home and returned to bed, the police added.

Hours later, Hsieh found her son on the street and took him inside the home, where she tried CPR, but realized that he was dead, they said.

However, Chen did not call the police until 10pm and he was arrested shortly afterward, they added.

Prosecutors yesterday examined the boy’s body, which was bruised and had abrasions, and their initial findings indicate that he died from internal bleeding, the police said.

The exact cause of death would be determined by an autopsy, they said.

The four-year-old was Hsieh’s youngest child from her marriage to a man surnamed Liao (廖), who was also the father of her six-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter.

Hsieh, 27, and Liao divorced after he was sent to prison in 2018, the police said.

Hsieh met Chen at the end of last year and married him in January, they said, adding that Chen worked odd jobs and sold scrap metal, while Hsieh was a stay-at-home mother.

When intoxicated, Chen would allegedly frequently beat the youngest son, who was the most active of Hsieh’s children, the police added.

Reporters visiting the couple’s home on Monday said that the pull-down metal door on the dilapidated single-floor building was broken.

Relatives of Chen said that he had two sons from a previous relationship, but that the parents of his former girlfriend would not allow her to marry him, citing “complications” in the relationship.

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content_text:
Yung Zip Chemical Industrial Co Ltd (永日化學) has been one of the few beneficiaries of COVID-19 after its shares rose nearly 24 percent in the past month as the maker of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is likely to secure more orders this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The uptrend has also boosted the shares of some of its local peers, such as Formosa Laboratories Inc (台耀化學) and Savior Lifetec Corp (展旺生技), as large pharmaceutical companies are likely to source APIs from Taiwanese makers in the wake of supply disruptions in China and India, analysts said.

Formosa Laboratories shares have risen 9.37 percent in the past month, while those of Savior Lifetec have jumped 5.87 percent.

SUPPLY LINE DISRUPTIONS

APIs are the basic inputs for drugs and more than 50 percent of medicine worldwide depends on APIs from China and India, especially analgesic APIs, antibiotic APIs and vitamins.

However, API supply disruptions in China due to environmental concerns and transportation difficulties, coupled with India’s export ban on 13 key pharmaceutical ingredients and related formulations, have led to a massive increase in prices, prompting major pharmaceutical firms to divert orders to Taiwanese suppliers, analysts said.

“We believe Taiwanese API manufacturers could see concentrated orders in [the first half of] 2020, if large pharmaceutical companies become wary of an API supply gap worldwide. Specifically, analgesic API and antibiotic API providers should see increased orders due to their urgency for routine clinical use, as well as their critical role in coronavirus treatment,” Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) analyst Jane Jiang (蔣欣穎) wrote in a report on Monday.

Yung Zip — whose product portfolio includes analgesic APIs and the antiviral drug acyclovir, as well as excipients and specialty chemicals — could benefit from rising average selling prices thanks to an increasing number of orders, Jiang wrote.

“In addition to the benefits from increased [average selling prices] and orders, Yung Zip’s higher stocking requirements also provide the company with an advantage during a shortage of raw materials,” she wrote.

Yung Zip, in which YungShin Global Holding Corp (永信藥品) holds a 20.8 percent stake, turned profitable last year after six consecutive years of losses owing to sales growth in higher-margin markets such as Japan, the EU and the US.

The company posted net income of NT$31 million (US$1.02 million) last year, or earnings per share of NT$0.74, compared with a loss of NT$15 million, or minus-NT$0.35 per share, the previous year.

Revenue grew 17 percent to NT$417 million last year and gross margin improved by 10.92 percentage points to 27.98 percent, company data showed.

Yung Zip on Wednesday last week announced that it planned to acquire a 70 percent stake in Taiwan Way Chein Industrial Co (台灣味群工業) for NT$139.65 million.

It plans to use Taiwan Way Chein’s facilities to expand its capacity by 30 percent in two to three years, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said in a client note on Monday.

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title: Yung Zip to benefit from global pandemic: analysts


title: Bat biology able to fight viruses

content_text:
‘ANCIENT SPECIES’:
 As a bat’s temperature rises, its immune system becomes stronger, said Wu Chung-hsin, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University

Bats have biological mechanisms that can boost their immune systems to combat viruses, an academic says.

“There are many mechanisms in a bat’s body to fight viruses,” Wu Chung-hsin (吳忠信), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s School of Life Science, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. “In the end, [bats] and viruses can coexist peacefully.”

Bats are an “ancient species” that can repair their DNA and regulate their body temperature, Wu said.

A bat is displayed at a news conference in Taipei yesterday as National Taiwan Normal University School of Life Science professor Wu Chung-hsin warned about the viruses that bats can carry.
 Photo: CNA

“When the viral load inside their body is high, they can increase their body temperature,” Wu said.

As a bat’s temperature rises, its immune system becomes stronger.

In a six-week study on 120 four-week-old piglets that Wu led last year, the animals were divided into a control group, a group that was given antibiotics and a group that was given concentrated traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Wu said.

About half of the control group developed pneumonia, and more than one-third died, he said.

The piglets given traditional Chinese medicine grew faster and had better overall health, Wu said.

Some traditional Chinese medicines might have anti-inflammatory effects on the lungs, he added.

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content_text:
Employers can request that their workers not leave the nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.

Many businesses have in the past several days sent internal memos to staff banning international travel following reports that the nation’s 54th confirmed case hid their overseas travel history from their employer, resulting in their colleagues being quarantined.

Through changes to their work rules or other methods, employers can let workers know that remaining in the nation during an epidemic is an “accompanying obligation,” Deputy Minister of Labor Liu Shih-hao (劉士豪) said.

Passengers wait in line to fill in a health declaration card after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Sunday.
 Photo: CNA

In addition to revising work rules and issuing announcements, it is most important for employers and employees to have a mutual understanding, he said.

International travel is a personal freedom with which companies cannot interfere, Liu said, but added that that changes when the situation involves the job or the employee’s “accompanying obligations.”

The legal basis for “accompanying obligations” is the principle of good faith cited in Article 148 of the Civil Code, he said.

While the employer’s “accompanying obligation” is to ensure worker safety and prevent accidents, employees must avoid infringing on the employer’s property and affecting operations, he added.

Separately yesterday, Academia Sinica announced that it would no longer approve official travel to countries or regions for which a level 3 travel advisory has been issued.

It also strongly warned against unnecessary travel to countries or regions under a level 2 advisory.

Organizers of international conferences have been notifying the institute of cancelations or postponements due to the pandemic, it said.

The Keystone Symposia and the Fulbright Association conference, originally scheduled to be held in Taipei in May and October respectively, are some of the events that have been affected, it added.

The Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday also announced that official overseas travel by its staff has been suspended.

Regarding personal travel, the ministry said that it has been forwarding the Central Epidemic Command Center’s latest recommendations to staff.

The ministry on Monday said that it had asked staff to refrain from all nonessential overseas travel.

The National Applied Research Laboratories, a part of the ministry, has banned all overseas travel — both personal and official — by its staff, although special cases would need to be reported and approved, the ministry added.

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on Friday last week also banned its personnel from visiting countries listed as the worst hit by COVID-19.

MOI personnel are banned from traveling to countries under a level 3 travel advisory, while those who want to travel to countries with level 1 and level 2 warnings need to get permission from their superiors, it said in a statement.

Personnel of MOI-affiliated agencies, such as police and fire departments, are not subject to the ban and if they plan to travel overseas, they must obtain prior approval from their unit based on that unit’s rules, it added.

Travelers arriving in Taiwan from any of the countries under a level 3 advisory are required to undergo 14-day self-quarantine.

The MOI said that it is devising a three-phase plan to separate officials of different levels to work at various locations to ensure smooth operations should the outbreak worsen.

The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration said that it would not forbid public servants from leaving the nation, but it has asked every agency’s personnel department to carefully assess whether their staff should be allowed to make overseas trips.

Some local governments, including the Taichung, Tainan and Keelung, as well as Penghu and Yunlin counties, have prohibited their employees from traveling abroad, while New Taipei City has asked teachers not to visit high-risk countries.

Additional reporting by Chien Hui-ju

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title: Virus Outbreak: Firms can ask workers to not travel


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Airport MRT bans people with a fever from certain nations

NEXT LINE OF DEFENSE:
 Taoyuan Metro Corp held a drill at the airport to see whether station staff knew how to respond to people with a high temperature

People arriving from countries or areas for which the Central Epidemic Command Center has issued a level 3 “warning” travel advisory and found to have a temperature of at least 38°C would not be allowed to board the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT System at the airport, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday.

The company, which operates the metropolitan railway system, said that it has deployed infrared thermometers at the 21 stations along the route.

People boarding the line from the airport’s terminal stations and found to have a temperature of 37.5°C or more would be asked to undergo a second measurement using an ear thermometer, the company said.

Passengers pass by an infrared temperature sensor at a station yesterday after Taoyuan Metro Corp equipped all 21 of its stations with the sensors due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
 Photo: CNA

If the second measurement exceeds 38°C, station staff would ask the passenger about their travel history and inform Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials if they are arriving from a country or area under a level 3 travel advisory, it said.

People arriving from countries or regions under a level 1 “watch” or level 2 “alert” travel advisory and found to have a temperature of 38°C or more in stations other than the airport terminals would be advised to arrange for someone to pick them up or take a taxi, the company said.

Should they insist on taking the airport MRT, they would be asked to wear a mask during the trip, and provide their name and contact information, it said, adding that they would also be given a self-health management card.

Separately yesterday, the company held a drill at the airport’s Terminal 1 to see whether MRT station personnel were familiar with the procedures to follow when infrared thermometers detect passengers with high temperatures.

They were also tested on their knowledge of how to respond to people entering the airport’s MRT stations without masks.

After watching the drill, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that the Airport MRT System is the second line of defense after passengers pass through screening stations at the airport.

The company should quickly inform the CDC if it finds passengers with high body temperatures, he said, adding that passengers with a fever should consider using a designated disease prevention taxi or a car rental service instead.


title: Shipbuilding boom might be hard to sustain in 2020

content_text:
MOMENTUM BLOCKED?
 A MOEA official said market volatility caused by the new coronavirus pandemic could trigger a decline similar to the 2008 global crisis

The nation’s shipbuilding sector is undergoing a renaissance, Department of Statistics Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) said by telephone yesterday, one day after a Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) report said the sector’s production value last year surged 25.2 percent to NT$27.1 billion (US$895.87 million at the current exchange rate).

The surge was largely due to growing demand from the offshore wind energy industry and domestic submarine projects, the report said.

There was also an increase in the production of large and small container ships, with production value increasing by 35.2 percent on an annual basis to NT$19.8 billion, while yacht manufacturing output grew 9.4 percent to NT$6.4 billion, the report said.

“The sector is witnessing a renaissance mainly due to the construction of offshore wind farms and the government’s plan to manufacture naval vessels locally,” Wang said.

“Exports now make up a majority of yacht orders, with the US as Taiwanese makers’ greatest client,” she said, adding that exports last year totaled US$231.55 million, a 38 percent increase from 2018.

Local yacht makers clinched the most orders last year among Asian firms, she said, citing data from Boat International Media.

However, whether Taiwanese firms will be able to maintain the momentum amid the COVID-19 pandemic is not clear.

“The demand for container ships is likely to falter this year as wind farm developers move on to the next phase in construction... However, this might boost orders for wind turbine installation vessels and the like,” Wang said.

“What we fear is the growing volatility across international markets fostered by fears about the spread of COVID-19,” she said.

The sector might see a decline similar to that during the 2008 global financial crisis, she said.

The sector’s production plummeted 21.1 percent in 2009, to NT$38.7 billion, from NT$49.1 billion in 2008, the ministry’s data showed.

“The fall in global trade [during 2008-2009] dealt a heavy blow to the local production of container ships,” Wang said.

While it is too early to make predictions, the sector would be affected if the pandemic continues, even though production of submarines might continue as planned, she said.

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content_text:
Outbreaks in Italy and South Korea show disparity in deaths and tactics
People with no symptoms could still spread the virus, while initial studies suggest that every positive COVID-19 patient can infect two other people

In Italy, millions are locked down and more than 2,150 people have died from the coronavirus. In South Korea, hit by the disease at about the same time, only a few thousand are quarantined and 75 people (as of yesterday) have died.

As the virus courses through the world, the story of two outbreaks illustrates a coming problem for countries now grappling with an explosion in cases.

It is impractical to test every potential patient, but unless the authorities can find a way to see how widespread infection is, their best answer is lockdown.

Italy started out testing widely, then narrowed the focus so that now, the authorities do not have to process hundreds of thousands of tests.

However, there is a trade-off: They cannot see what is coming and are trying to curb the movements of the country’s entire population of 60 million people to contain the disease.

Even Pope Francis, who has a cold and delivered his Sunday blessing over the Internet from inside the Vatican, said he felt “caged in the library.”

Thousands of kilometers away in South Korea, authorities have a different response to a similar-sized outbreak. They are testing hundreds of thousands of people for infections and tracking potential carriers like detectives, using cellphone and satellite technology.

Both countries saw their first cases of the disease called COVID-19 in late January. South Korea has since reported 75 deaths out of at least 8,320 confirmed cases, after testing more than 222,000 people

In contrast, Italy has had 2,158 deaths (as of yesterday) and identified more than 27,980 cases after carrying out more than 73,000 tests on an unspecified number of people.

Epidemiologists say it is not possible to compare the numbers directly, but some say the dramatically different outcomes point to an important insight: Aggressive and sustained testing is a powerful tool for fighting the virus.

Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, said extensive testing can give countries a better picture of the extent of an outbreak.

When testing in a country is limited, the authorities have to take bolder actions to limit movement of people, he said.

“I’m uncomfortable with enforced lockdown-type movement restrictions,” he said. “China did that, but China is able to do that. China has a population that will comply with that.”

The democracies of Italy and South Korea are useful case studies for countries such as the US, which have had problems setting up testing systems and are weeks behind on the infection curve.

So far, in Japan and the US particularly, the full scale of the problem is not yet visible. Germany has not experienced significant testing constraints, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her people on Wednesday last week that since 60 percent to 70 percent of the populace is likely to be infected, the only option is containment.

LESSONS FROM MERS

South Korea, which has a slightly smaller population than Italy at about 50 million people, has about 29,000 people in self-quarantine. It has imposed lockdowns on some facilities and at least one apartment complex hit hardest by outbreaks, but so far no entire regions have been cut off.

Seoul says it is building on lessons learned from an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015 and working to make as much information available as possible to the public.

It has embarked on a massive testing program, including people who have very mild illness, or perhaps do not even have symptoms, but who might be able to infect others.

This includes enforcing a law that grants the government wide authority to access data: closed-circuit television footage, GPS tracking data from phones and vehicles, credit card transactions, immigration entry information and other personal details of people confirmed to have an infectious disease.

The authorities can then make some of this public, so anyone who may have been exposed can get themselves — or their friends and family members — tested.

In addition to helping work out who to test, South Korea’s data-driven system helps hospitals manage their pipeline of cases. People found positive are placed in self-quarantine and monitored remotely through a smartphone app, or checked regularly in telephone calls, until a hospital bed becomes available.

When a bed is available, an ambulance picks the person up and takes the patient to a hospital with air-sealed isolation rooms. All of this, including hospitalization, is free of charge.

South Korea’s response is not perfect. While more than 209,000 people have tested negative there, results are still pending on about 18,000 others — an information gap that means there are likely more cases in the pipeline.

The rate of newly confirmed cases has dropped since a peak in the middle of last month, but the system’s greatest test might still be ahead as authorities try to track and contain new clusters.

South Korea does not have enough protective masks — it has started rationing them — and it is trying to hire more trained staff to process tests and map cases.

And the approach comes at the cost of some privacy. South Korea’s system is an intrusive mandatory measure that depends on people surrendering what, for many in Europe and the US, would be a fundamental right of privacy.

Unlike China and Singapore, which have used similar methods, South Korea is a large democracy with a population that is quick to protest policies it does not like.

“Disclosing information about patients always comes with privacy infringement issues,” said Choi Jaewook, a preventive medicine professor at Korea University and a senior official at the Korean Medical Association.

Disclosures “should be strictly limited” to patients’ movements, and “it shouldn’t be about their age, their sex, or their employers,” Choi said.

Traditional responses such as locking down affected areas and isolating patients can be only modestly effective, and might cause problems in open societies, South Korean Deputy Minister for Health and Welfare Kim Gang-lip said.

In South Korea’s experience, lockdowns mean people participate less in tracing contacts they might have had, he told reporters on Monday last week.

“Such an approach is close-minded, coercive and inflexible,” he said.

Italy and South Korea are more than 8,000km apart, but there are several similarities when it comes to the coronavirus. Both countries’ main outbreaks were initially clustered in smaller cities or towns, rather than in a major metropolis — which meant the disease quickly threatened local health services, and both involved doctors who decided to ignore testing guidelines.

ITALY AT THE LIMIT

Italy’s epidemic kicked off last month. A local man with flu symptoms was diagnosed after he had told medical staff he had not been to China and discharged himself, said Massimo Lombardo, head of local hospital services in Lodi.

The diagnosis was only made after the 38-year-old, whose name has only been given as Mattia, returned to the hospital.

Testing guidelines at the time said it was not necessary to test people who had no link to China or other affected areas.

However, an anesthetist pushed the protocols and decided to go ahead and test for COVID-19 anyway, Lombardo said.

Now, some experts in Italy believe Mattia might have been infected through Germany, rather than China.

Decisions about testing hinge partly on what can be done with people who test positive, at a time when the healthcare system is already under stress.

In Italy at first, regional authorities tested widely and counted all positive results in the published total, even if people did not have symptoms.

Then, a few days after the patient known as Mattia was found to have COVID-19, Italy changed tack, only testing and announcing cases of people with symptoms.

The authorities said this was the most effective use of resources: The risk of contagion seemed lower from patients with no symptoms, and limited tests help produce reliable results more quickly.

The approach carried risks: People with no symptoms still can be infected and spread the virus.

On the other hand, the more you test the more you find, so testing in large numbers can put hospital systems under strain, said Massimo Antonelli, director of intensive care at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome.

Testing involves elaborate medical processes and follow-up.

“The problem is actively searching for cases,” he said. “It means simply the numbers are big.”

Italy has a generally efficient health system, according to international studies. Its universal healthcare receives funding below the EU average, but is comparable with South Korea’s, at 8.9 percent of GDP against 7.3 percent in South Korea, the WHO said.

Now, that system has been knocked off balance. Staff are being brought into accident and emergency departments, holidays have been canceled and doctors say they are delaying non-urgent operations to free up intensive care beds.

Pier Luigi Viale, head of the infectious disease unit at Sant’ Orsola-Malpighi hospital in Bologna, is working around the clock — in three jobs.

His hospital is handling multiple coronavirus cases. His doctors are shuttling to other hospitals and clinics in the area to lend their expertise and help out with cases.

In addition, his doctors also have to deal with patients with other contagious diseases who are struggling to survive.

“If it drags on for weeks or months we’ll need more reinforcements,” Viale said.

Earlier this month, the mayor of Castiglione d’Adda, a town of about 5,000 people in Lombardy’s “red zone,” which was the first to be locked down, made an urgent online appeal for help.

He said his small town had had to close its hospital and was left with one doctor to treat more than 100 coronavirus patients. Three of the town’s four doctors were sick or in self quarantine.

“Doctors and nurses are at the limit,” a nurse from the hospital where Mattia was taken in said. “If you have to manage people under artificial respiration you have to be watching them constantly, you can’t look after the new cases that come in.”

Studies so far suggest that every positive case of coronavirus can infect two other people, so local authorities in Lombardy have warned that the region’s hospitals face a serious crisis if the spread continues — not just for COVID-19 patients, but also for others whose treatment has been delayed or disrupted.

As the crisis spreads into Italy’s less prosperous south, the problems will be magnified.

Intensive care facilities face the most intense pressure. They require specialist staff and expensive equipment and are not set up for mass epidemics.

In total, Italy has about 5,000 intensive care beds. In the winter months, some of these are already occupied by patients with respiratory problems.

Lombardy and Veneto have just over 1,800 intensive care beds between public and private systems, only some of which can be set aside for COVID-19 patients.

The government has asked regional authorities to increase the number of intensive care places by 50 percent and to double the number of beds for respiratory and contagious diseases, while reorganizing staff rosters to ensure adequate staffing.

About 5,000 respirators have been acquired for intensive care stations, the first of which were due to arrive on Friday last week, Italian Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Laura Castelli said.

The region has already asked nursing institutes to allow students to bring forward their graduation to get more nurses into the system early.

Pools of intensive care specialists and anesthetists are to be set up, including staff from outside the worst affected regions.

To add to the burden, hospitals in Italy depend on medical personnel to try to trace the contacts that people who test positive have had with others.

One doctor in Bologna, who asked not to be named, said he had spent a 12-hour day tracing people who had been in contact with just one positive patient, to ensure those who next need testing are found.

“You can do that if the number of cases remains two to three,” the doctor said. “But if they grow, something has to give. The system will implode if we continue to test everyone actively and then have to do all this.”

MAXIMUM POWER

In South Korea as in Italy, an early case of COVID-19 was identified when a medical officer followed their intuition, rather than the official guidelines, on testing.

The country’s first case was a 35-year-old Chinese woman who tested positive on Jan. 20, but the largest outbreak was detected after the 31st patient, a 61-year-old woman from Daegu was diagnosed on Feb. 18.

Like the patient named Mattia in Italy, the woman had no known links to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the disease was first identified.

As in Italy, the doctors’ decision to recommend a test went against guidelines at the time to test people who had been to China or been in contact with a confirmed case, Choi said.

“Patient 31,” as she became known, was a member of a secretive church which South Korean Deputy Minister for Health and Welfare Kim Gang-lip said has since linked to 61 percent of cases.

Infections spread beyond the congregation after the funeral of a relative of the church’s founder was held at a nearby hospital, and there were several other smaller clusters around the country.

Once the church cluster was identified, South Korea opened about 50 drive-through testing facilities around the country. In empty parking lots, medical staff in protective clothing lean into cars to check their passengers for fever or breathing difficulties, and if needed, collect samples.

The process usually takes about 10 minutes, and people usually receive the results in a text reminding them to wash their hands regularly and wear face masks.

A total of 117 institutions in South Korea have equipment to conduct the tests, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The numbers fluctuate daily, but an average of 12,000 is possible, and maximum capacity is 20,000 tests a day.

The government pays for tests of people with symptoms, if referred by a doctor. Otherwise, people who want to be tested can pay up to 170,000 won (US$140), said an official at a company called Seegene, which supplies 80 percent of the country’s kits and says it can test 96 samples at once.

There are also 130 quarantine officers like Kim Jeong-hwan, who focus on minute details to track potential patients. The 28-year-old public health doctor spends his whole working days remotely checking up on people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Kim, who is doing military service, is one of a small army of quarantine officers who track the movements of any potential carriers of the disease by phone, app or the signals sent by cellphones or the black boxes in automobiles.

Their goal: To trace all the contacts people might have had, so they too can be tested.

“I haven’t seen anyone telling bad lies,” Kim said. “But lots of people generally don’t remember exactly what they did.”

Underlining their determination, quarantine officers said they located five cases after a worker in a small town caught the virus and went to work in a “coin karaoke,” a bar where a machine lets people sing a few songs for a dollar.

At first, the woman, who was showing symptoms, did not tell the officers where she worked, local officials said.

However, they put the puzzle together after questioning her acquaintances and obtaining GPS locations on her mobile device.

“Now, quarantine officers have maximum power and authority,” said Kim Jun-geun, an official at Changnyeong County who collects information from quarantine officers.

South Korea’s government also uses location data to customize mass messages sent to cellphones, notifying every resident when and where a nearby case is confirmed.

Lee Hee-young, a preventative medicine expert who is also running the coronavirus response team in Gyeonggi Province, said South Korea has gone some of the way after MERS to increase its infrastructure to respond to infectious diseases.

However, only 30 percent of the changes the country needs have happened, she said.

For instance, maintaining a trained workforce and up-to-date infrastructure at smaller hospitals is not easy, she said.

“Until we fix this, explosions like this can keep blowing up anywhere,” she said.

Additional reporting by Angelo Amante, James Mackenzie, Josh Smith and Julie Steenhuysen

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content_text:
Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz player who tested positive for COVID-19, says the “scariest” part of his diagnosis is that he has no symptoms.

“I’m asymptomatic — I could walk down the street if it wasn’t public knowledge that I was sick, you wouldn’t know it,” Mitchell told Good Morning America on Monday. “I think that’s the scariest part about this virus, is that you may seem fine, be fine, and you never know who you may be talking to, who they’re going home to.”

The 23-year-old said that he felt like he “could play in a seven-game series tomorrow.”

Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, left, shoots past Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of the Toronto Raptors in their NBA game in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday last week.
 Photo: Russell Isabella-USA Today

He said the worst part of the illness was being tested.

“It was a swab down my throat. It was about 15 seconds of probably the most discomfort I ever had. I ended up crying,” he said. “Tears came out of my eyes when they started going up in this area. It was definitely unique, but I’m glad I was able to get it.”

Mitchell’s teammate, Rudy Gobert, was the first NBA player to be diagnosed, which led to the suspension of the season.

Gobert has been heavily criticized for touching microphones and recording devices shortly before being diagnosed with the illness.

He has since apologized and Mitchell admitted that he had initially been angry with Gobert.

“It took a while for me to kind of cool off, and I read what he said and I heard what he said, so I’m glad he’s doing OK,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he had been playing video games and watching replays of games to pass the time. He is also working on a project to help underprivileged children in Salt Lake City, Utah, gain access to meals.

“For parents who may not have the money — being able to not send their kids off to school to get food, I think is a scary feeling for them, and I want to be able to make sure that they’re set and they understand that guys like myself and whoever may have their back,” Mitchell said.

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title: Lack of symptoms is the ‘scariest’ thing: Mitchell


title: Fears over ‘Missing Olympics’ repeat

content_text:
Fears are growing that this year’s Olympics could be postponed or axed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Japan has been here before — the canceled summer Games of 1940 were also due to be hosted in Tokyo.

Japan’s military aggression in Asia forced the annulment of what became known as the “Missing Olympics” after the Games were switched to Helsinki before finally being scrapped because of World War II.

Tokyo officials originally touted a bid for the 1940 Games as a way to show the city had recovered from the devastating 1923 earthquake, author David Goldblatt wrote in his history of the Olympics entitled The Games.

In much the same way, Japan has framed this year’s Olympics as the “Recovery Games” — a chance to show that the nation is back on its feet after the catastrophic 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

Tokyo’s 1940 bid was spearheaded by Jigoro Kano, the founder of modern judo and the first Japanese member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who stressed the importance of bringing the Games to Asia for the first time.

“I carry a grave resolve. The Olympics should naturally come to Japan. If they don’t, the reason for this must be something unjust,” Kano said in his plea to the IOC.

The Japanese had a special reason for wanting to celebrate 1940, as it coincided with the 2,600th year since the enthronement of the nation’s legendary first emperor, Jimmu.

Tokyo launched an official bid in 1932 and found itself up against Rome and Helsinki.

Japan engaged in a fierce lobbying campaign that included pleading with Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to step aside in its favor.

“In the you-scratch-my-back kind of deal that has become the norm in international sports politics, Mussolini announced with unusual candor: ‘We will waive our claim for 1940 in favor of Japan if Japan will support Italy’s effort to get the XIIIth Olympiad for Rome in 1944,” Goldblatt wrote.

With just Tokyo and Helsinki left standing, the IOC plumped for the Japanese capital by 37 votes to 26.

Before the bid had been tabled, Japan in 1931 invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria and two years later withdrew from the League of Nations — the precursor to the UN — after the body refused to sanction the occupation.

The Olympic bid was therefore also an attempt to shore up international diplomacy, said Asato Ikeda, assistant professor at Fordham University, New York, who has written about the 1940 Games.

Japan’s bid was “part of its international cultural diplomacy in order to ameliorate the relationship with the Western democratic nations, especially Britain and the United States,” Ikeda wrote in an essay in the Asia-Pacific Journal.

As preparations for the Games gathered pace, a schedule was drawn up and posters were printed. The opening ceremony was set for Sept. 21, 1940.

There were some hiccups, though, including questions about whether the emperor could declare the Games open, as the Japanese held him to be semi-divine, and therefore unable to be seen and heard by ordinary citizens.

As diplomatic pressure grew on Japan from the outside, there was increasing clamor inside the nation for cash to be diverted for military purposes.

Japanese diplomats at the time voiced concern in cables back to Tokyo that powers such as Britain and the US could boycott the Games over Japan’s war-like activity.

Yet, in words familiar to those following the story of this year’s Olympic Games, Tokyo insisted that the show would go on.

Barker cites a cable from Tokyo City Hall to the IOC which said: “The citizens of Tokyo are doing their utmost to make the 1940 Games a success.”

However, the Japanese Olympic Committee eventually bowed to the inevitable and forfeited in July 1938, saying what they euphemistically called “the trouble with China” had made staging the Games impossible.

“The organizing committee and the people of Japan were deeply disappointed in having to give up the Games, but, in the circumstances, no other course was open,” the Olympic News bulletin published in Tokyo wrote at the time.

“With the worsening international relations and increasing military activities in the Asian continent, the cancelation might not have been that surprising,” Ikeda said.

The Winter Games, due to be held in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, were also scrapped and the war put paid to the proposed rescheduling in the Finnish capital.

The next time the Olympic torch was lit was for London in 1948, four years after the city had originally been due to host, but Japan, as a defeated power, was excluded and Helsinki staged the next summer Games in 1952.

Tokyo finally became the first Asian city to host the Olympic Games in 1964.

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content_text:
DEFENSIVE TACKLE:
 The package focusing on wage subsidies, tax breaks and a boost to healthcare would soften the blow from the pandemic, the minister of finance said

New Zealand yesterday unveiled a NZ$12.1 billion (US$7.3 billion) stimulus package as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern raided the nation’s “rainy day” fund to soften the economic hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Zealand Minister of Finance Grant Robertson conceded that “recession is almost certain,” but said that the package — which focuses on wage subsidies, tax breaks and a boost to healthcare — would help contain its impact.

The center-left government said that it was the largest peacetime spending spree in modern New Zealand history — the equivalent of three years’ worth of budget operational funding in one go.

Robertson likened it to a defensive tackle from the country’s famous All Blacks rugby union team.

“We are in for a fight against an outside force beyond our control that is wreaking havoc around the globe, we are up for that fight,” he told parliament. “There is no better defensive line than the All Blacks and it is just the same with our people as we face this virus.”

Ardern said government finances were set up to include provision for emergency response.

“We’ve always been prepared for the fact that a rainy day could befall us,” she said. “As a nation, that is part of the Shaky Isles, which experiences volcanoes, extreme weather events, earthquakes.”

Initial market reaction to the package was positive, with the NZX 50 at one point rising 0.89 percent before closing the day with a 0.5 percent loss.

New Zealand has just eight confirmed cases and no fatalities, for a population of nearly 5 million.

It has imposed strict travel restrictions, ordering all international arrivals to self-isolate, in a bid to prevent infection.

Ardern said the stimulus package followed the same strategy of taking bold action early.

“We’ve gone hard with our health response and now we’re going hard with our financial assistance,” she said.

Robertson said the package was just the first step in the government’s economic response, with further stimulus set to be announced in the annual budget in May.

The central bank also slashed its base rate 0.75 points to 0.25 percent on Monday.

The package offers NZ$5.1 billion in wage subsidies for businesses hit by a virus-induced downturn, while welfare recipients would receive about NZ$2.8 billion in additional payments.

Business tax breaks total about NZ$2.8 billion and the balance going to measures, such as additional healthcare, and a NZ$600 million package for the aviation industry.

Robertson said the aviation support did not include direct government subsidies for Air New Zealand, which on Monday announced that it was scaling back to a skeleton operation throughout the crisis.

Kiwibank said that it was an extraordinary fiscal package for extraordinary times.

“The package goes some way to backstopping business and reducing the risk of a rise in defaults ... it’s good news, it’s a positive step,” the bank’s economists said in a research note.

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title: Virus Outbreak: NZ unveils stimulus package