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STUCK:
 The lawsuits filed against organizations affiliated with the KMT have stalled or are awaiting constitutional interpretation, leading to only a small amount of seizures

Up to 50 administrative lawsuits that had been filed against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regarding its ill-gotten assets are proceeding slowly, with some pending constitutional interpretations, Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee Chairman Lin Feng-jeng said yesterday.

Several lawsuits were suspended after some of the entities that had been appealed applied to halt the lawsuits on grounds that they lacked legitimacy or that their execution might cause irreparable damage, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.

The Administrative Appeals Act (行政訴訟法) stipulates that cases related to the public’s welfare should continue despite such applications, Kuan said, accusing judges of considering ill-gotten party assets as being “irrelevant to the public’s welfare.”

Kuan made the remarks at the Legislative Yuan, where the committee briefed lawmakers about its investigation, handling and seizure of ill-gotten party assets.

Lin said that in Germany, courts would rule in favor of the appealer when a case of ill-gotten party assets is associated to a great extent with the public’s welfare, adding that administrative lawsuits filed against the KMT are not unconstitutional.

“We hope the grand justices will give us an answer as soon as possible,” he said.

The committee has identified nine organizations as KMT affiliates: Central Investment Co (中央投資), Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台), the China Youth Corps (救國團), the National Women’s League (婦聯會), Central Motion Picture Corp (中影), Broadcasting Corp of China (中廣), the Mintsu Foundation (民族基金會), the Minchuan Foundation (民權基金會) and the National Development Foundation (國家發展基金會), Lin said.

Regarding the scope of assets that should be seized, statistics indicate that the KMT should transfer its holdings in Central Investment and Hsinyutai — worth NT$27.2 billion (US$894.6 million) — to state ownership, while assets belonging to the National Women’s League that should be nationalized include NT$37.5 billion in cash, stock holdings with a market value of NT$600 million, and land and buildings that cover 2,600m2, Lin said.

Land and buildings that should be transferred by Broadcasting Corp of China cover about 100,000m2 and 699m2 respectively, in addition to NT$7.731 billion for the KMT’s earnings from the sale of the plot of land where the luxury residential complex The Palace (帝寶) stands in Taipei, Lin said.

Buildings sold by the KMT, including one housing its Central Committee’s former office and the Da Hsiao Building (大孝大樓) in Taipei need to be seized as well, Lin said, adding that they have a combined worth of NT$2.785 billion.

In total, the party should transfer land and buildings covering about 112,000m2, as well as assets valued at NT$76 billion, to state ownership, he said.

However, the actual amount seized is only NT$12 million, with another NT$53.2 million lodged in court, he added.

The Executive Yuan has yet to establish a special fund to decide how to utilize the seized money, Lin said.

The administrative lawsuits include three cases pending constitutional interpretations — two involving Central Investment and the other the National Women’s League — Lin said.

It is unacceptable that courts have ignored the public benefit and grand justices have postponed constitutional interpretations since the committee’s founding in 2016, causing only a fraction of the KMT’s assets to be seized, Kuan said.

The committee should take a more hardline stance against the Council of Grand Justices to expedite the legal process, she added.

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title: KMT asset suits moving at snail’s pace


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Government planning to help importing 5G devices

The government plans to facilitate the import of 5G-capable terminal devices as the nation’s three major telecoms prepare to launch 5G service in the third quarter of this year, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.

The nation’s first 5G spectrum auction, which was completed on Feb. 20, generated total bids of NT$142.2 billion (US$4.7 billion).

The commission last week interviewed the managements of Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications about their business and data security plans for 5G service amid concerns that their plans might be disrupted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The telecoms have not experienced much problems securing base stations and other equipment to build their 5G networks, NCC Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee in Taipei.

However, there are concerns about the supply of terminal devices on the consumers’ end, including smartphones and tablet computers.

Apple and other manufactures have their smartphones produced at plants in China, which have not returned to full capacity following lockdowns prompted by the outbreak, Chen said, adding that Taiwanese consumers might not have 5G-capable smartphones when 5G service becomes available.

Equipment that is 5G-capable can be imported only after manufacturers secure certification from the NCC, and the spread of COVID-19 might leave the telecoms without 5G-capable smartphones to sell when they launch 5G service, Chen said.

“If it is necessary and fulfills the relevant regulations, we would offer special assistance so that telecoms can quickly procure 5G mobile phones,” he said.

Lawmakers at the committee asked whether 5G service in its initial stage would only be available to residents in the six special municipalities, given that they account for 70 percent of the nation’s population.

Chen said that the telecoms would in the beginning inevitably focus on the construction of infrastructure in metropolitan areas.

However, the commission would encourage them to accelerate the building of infrastructure in economically disadvantaged areas by offering them incentives, including offering subsidies for the construction of base stations in remote townships and reducing the frequency usage fee, he said.

The subsidies could be funded by the bids generated at the 5G spectrum auction, he added.

Both 4G and 5G services would coexist for some time after the latter launches, Chen said, adding that consumers can choose either service based on their needs.

Lawmakers also questioned whether the nation has sufficient bandwidth to support the provision of distance-learning for students nationwide should the government decide to close schools if the COVID-19 outbreak worsens.

Of the nation’s 86 remote townships, 85 have broadband service transmitted at 1 gigabit per second, Chen said, adding that 753 villages and boroughs have services transmitted at 100 megabits per second or faster.

However, the problem is that there are either not enough computers for students or the computers are outdated, he said, adding that the Ministry of Education is in charge of minimizing the digital gap between urban and rural areas.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: US eliminated key CDC adviser post in Beijing last year

Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, US President Donald Trump’s administration eliminated a key US public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.

The first cases of the new coronavirus might have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration last month chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping US experts from entering the country to help.

From left, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, US Vice President Mike Pence and US President Donald Trump attend a news conference at the White House in Washington on Sunday.
 Photo: Reuters

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”

Zhu and the other sources said the US expert, Linda Quick, was a trainer of Chinese field epidemiologists who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks to help track, investigate and contain diseases.

As a US CDC employee, Quick was in an ideal position to be the eyes and ears on the ground for the US and other countries on the coronavirus outbreak, and might have alerted them to the growing threat weeks earlier, they said.

Zhu and the other sources said Quick could have provided real-time information to US and other officials around the world during the first weeks of the outbreak, when they said the Chinese government tamped down on the release of information and provided erroneous assessments.

Quick left amid a bitter US trade dispute with China when she learned her federally funded post, officially known as resident adviser to the US Field Epidemiology Training Program in China, would be discontinued as of September, the sources said.

The US CDC said it first learned of a “cluster of 27 cases of pneumonia” of unexplained origin in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31.

Since then, the outbreak of the disease known as COVID-19 has spread rapidly worldwide.

During a press briefing on Sunday shortly after this story was first published, Trump dismissed the report as similar to other stories regarding the US CDC that he described as “100 percent wrong,” without addressing whether the role had been eliminated.

US CDC Director Robert Redfield said that the agency’s presence in China “is actually being augmented as we speak,” without elaborating.

In a statement to Reuters before the report was published, the US CDC said the elimination of the adviser position did not hinder Washington’s ability to get information and “had absolutely nothing to do with CDC not learning of cases in China earlier.”

The agency said its decision not to have a resident adviser “started well before last summer and was due to China’s excellent technical capability and maturity of the program.”

The CDC said it has assigned two of its Chinese employees as “mentors” to help with the training program. It did not respond to questions about the mentors’ specific role or expertise.

The CDC would not make Quick, who still works for the agency, available for comment.

Asked for comment on Chinese transparency and responsiveness to the outbreak, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred reporters to remarks by spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) on Friday.

Geng said the country “has adopted the strictest, most comprehensive, and most thorough prevention and control measures in an open, transparent, and responsible manner, and informed the [WHO] and relevant countries and regions of the latest situation in a timely manner.”

One disease expert said he was skeptical that the US resident adviser would have been able to get earlier or better information to the Trump administration, given the Chinese government’s suppression of information.

“In the end, based on circumstances in China, it probably wouldn’t have made a big difference,” said Scott McNabb, who was a CDC epidemiologist for 20 years and is now a research professor at Emory University. “The problem was how the Chinese handled it. What should have changed was the Chinese should have acknowledged it earlier and didn’t.”

US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar on Friday said that his agency learned of the coronavirus in early January, based on Redfield’s conversations with “Chinese colleagues.”

Redfield learned that “this looks to be a novel coronavirus” from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Gao Fu (高福), according to an HHS administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Dr Redfield always talked to Dr Gao,” the official said.

The HHS and CDC did not make Azar or Redfield available for comment.

Zhu and other sources said that US leaders should not have been relying on the China CDC director for alerts and updates.

In general, officials in China downplayed the severity of the outbreak in the early weeks and did not acknowledge evidence of person-to-person transmission until Jan. 20, they said.

After the epidemic exploded and China had imposed strict quarantines, Trump administration officials complained that the Chinese had censored information about the outbreak and that the US had been unable to get US disease experts into the country to help contain the spread.

Azar told CNN on Feb. 14 that he and Redfield officially offered to send a CDC team into China on Jan. 6, but still had not received permission for them to enter the country.

“Dr Redfield and I made the offer on January 6th — 36 days ago, 60,000 cases and 1,300 deaths ago,” Azar said. “We made the offer to send the CDC experts in to assist their Chinese colleagues to get to the bottom of key scientific questions like, how transmissible is this disease? What is the severity? What is the incubation period and can there be asymptomatic transmission?”

Days later, the WHO secured permission to send a team that included two US experts. The team visited between Feb. 16 and Feb. 24. By then, China had reported more than 75,000 cases.

On Feb. 25, the first day the US CDC told the US public to prepare for an outbreak at home, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of mishandling the epidemic through its “censorship” of medical professionals and media.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since then, as Trump has labeled the coronavirus the “Chinese virus.”

The decision to eliminate Quick’s job came as the US CDC has scaled back the number of US staffers in China over the past two years, the sources said.

“We had already withdrawn many technical public health experts,” the same expert said.

However, the US CDC disputed that staffing was a problem or that its information had been limited by the move.

“It was not the staffing shortage that limited our ability,” it said.

The US CDC team in Beijing now includes three US citizens in permanent roles, an additional American who is temporary and about 10 Chinese nationals, the agency said.

Of the Americans, one is an influenza expert with expertise in respiratory disease.

The CDC team, aside from Quick, was housed at US embassy facilities.

Infectious disease experts who spoke with Reuters said the US could still use people such as Quick with contacts on the ground in China, especially if fears of a second wave of infections materializes.

Former US CDC director Thomas Frieden said that if the US resident adviser had still been in China, “it is possible that we would know more today about how this coronavirus is spreading and what works best to stop it.”

George Conway, a medical epidemiologist who knows Quick and had served as resident advisor between 2012 and 2015, said funding for the position had been tenuous for years, because of a perennial debate among US health officials over whether China should be paying for funding its own training program.

Yet since the training program was launched in 2001, the sources familiar with it say, it has not only strengthened the ranks of Chinese epidemiologists in the field, but also fostered collegial relationships between public health officials in the two countries.

“We go there as credentialed diplomats and return home as close colleagues and often as friends,” Conway said.

In 2007, Robert Fontaine, a CDC epidemiologist and one of the longest-serving US officials in the adviser’s position, received China’s highest honor for outstanding contributions to public health due to his contribution as a foreigner in helping to detect and investigate clusters of pneumonia of unknown cause.

However, since last year, Frieden and others said, growing tensions between the Trump administration and China’s leadership have apparently damaged the collaboration.

“The message from the administration was: ‘Don’t work with China, they’re our rival,’” Frieden said.

Trump’s re-election campaign sent out a statement on Sunday evening dismissing controversy about the US CDC’s cut as a matter of politics.

“Democrats are eager to politicize the coronavirus crisis and weaponize it against President Trump, the statement said. “In so doing, they’re siding with the Chinese and providing cover for Beijing’s cover-up.”


title: Investors wary of new trading system: TWSE

content_text:
Despite the launch of a new continuous trading system yesterday, most local investors remained cautious and placed conventional day-only limit orders, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said.

Day-only limit orders made up 96.31 percent of the 13.41 million orders placed on the exchange yesterday, while five new types of orders only constituted 3.69 percent, TWSE data showed.

Of the five new types of orders placed, immediate or cancel limit orders ranked first at 3.33 percent, followed by day-only market orders at 0.3 percent, fill-or-kill limit orders at 0.03 percent and immediate-or-cancel market orders at 0.03 percent, while no one placed a fill-or-kill market order, the data showed.

A man wearing a mask walks past a screen displaying stock prices at a brokerage in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: CNA

“It was no surprise that most traders stuck to the day-only limit orders, as individual traders account for 60 percent of overall trading. They were not expected to use the new order types on the first day of the new trading system,” a TWSE official surnamed Chen (陳) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

The TAIEX plunged again yesterday, and most Asian equity markets also declined, which rattled local market sentiment, Chen said.

The benchmark index fell 3.73 percent to close at 8,890.03 points, below its 10-year moving average of 9,910 points. Turnover totaled NT$146.85 billion (US$4.83 billion), down 40 percent from NT$237 billion the previous session.

Foreign investors sold a net NT$15.85 billion of local shares, down from NT$21.9 billion the previous session.

All six types of orders could be grouped into limit orders and market orders, with the former allowing investors to set a price ceiling or a price floor, and the latter allowing investors to trade stocks at the market’s best available price, Chen said.

Limit orders accounted for 99.67 percent of the total yesterday, compared with market orders at 0.33 percent, stock exchange data showed.

“As most retail investors have an expected price before transacting, they prefer limit orders, which allow them to seek a specific price or better. The only risk is that it does not guarantee an execution if the price does not reach their target,” Chen said.

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content_text:
Unemployment rate rises to 3.7%, virus effects start to show

The nation’s unemployment rate last month edged up 0.06 percentage points to 3.7 percent, mainly due to losses of seasonal or temporary positions, while the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak began to emerge, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

“The impact of the virus pandemic is not yet obvious based on the latest employment data,” as companies usually cut working hours first to cope with a slowdown, DGBAS official Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) told a media briefing in Taipei.

If the outbreak persists and escalates, the job market would increasingly feel the pinch, Chen said.

The jobless rate was the highest in three months, but the reading after seasonal adjustments shrank 0.01 percentage points to 3.7, from 3.71 percent one month earlier, the DGBAS report showed.

The virus seems to have begun to affect the labor participation rate, which shed 0.05 percentage points to 59.15 percent, more than the range of 0.02 to 0.04 percentage points seen at this time of the year in the past, Chen said.

Last month, the number of unemployed people stood at 443,000, an increase of 7,000 from a month earlier, as 3,000 people lost temporary or seasonal jobs and 2,000 lost work to business closures, the agency said.

People on unpaid leave are not listed as jobless.

By education level, university graduates had the highest unemployment rate at 5.29 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.49 percent and people with graduate degrees at 2.92 percent, the report said.

People aged 20 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate at 11.87 percent, followed by those aged 15 to 19 at 8.36 percent, those aged 25 to 29 at 6.53 percent, and those aged 30 to 34 at 3.38 percent, it said.

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content_text:
AID:
 The government should focus on ensuring that firms can pay their employees instead of offering stimulus vouchers, Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Yeh Kuang-shih said

A National Policy Foundation forum yesterday called for more extensive stimulus and relief measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 and help those affected by the pandemic.

The meeting by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-affiliated think tank was attended by experts, KMT lawmakers, and representatives from the 15 KMT-controlled cities and counties.

With the introduction and passage in the Legislative Yuan of policies and bills related to the pandemic, the party and the 15 cities and counties should coordinate their responses toward different issues, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said as he opened the discussion.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang, right, speaks at a discussion forum organized by the KMT-sponsored National Policy Foundation think tank in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: CNA

The “highlight” of the government’s stimulus and relief package is a series of “stimulus vouchers,” for which a budget of NT$2.3 billion (US$75.65 million) has been set aside, foundation consultant Shih Wei-chuan (施威全) said.

However, people should not be required to stay at a hotel to receive the vouchers, he said, adding that city and county governments should be allowed to assign the channels through which the vouchers are distributed.

Local governments should also be given the authority to decide the shops or venues — on top of the ones chosen by the central government — where the vouchers can be used, he said, citing differences in spending patterns across different cities and counties.

A fear of going outside and being exposed to the virus might prevent people from using the stimulus vouchers, Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said.

Relief efforts should instead focus on ensuring that businesses do not lack funds to pay workers to avoid unemployment, he said.

Compared with South Korea, Singapore, the UK and the US, the scale of Taiwan’s stimulus and relief program is “very small,” Shih said.

While South Korea’s economy is only 2.8 times that of Taiwan’s, it has pledged more than 10 times as much in relief funds as Taiwan, Soochow University School of Big Data Management professor Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬) said.

The government should provide special support to businesses that do not lay off staff, despite being affected by the outbreak, he said.

Chu also suggested that the government set up dedicated hotlines that businesses can call to inquire about the government’s stimulus and relief measures.

April 15 would be a “very important date,” he said, adding that it is the day the Executive Yuan is expected to submit a report on the progress, execution and reception of its NT$60 billion coronavirus budget to the Legislative Yuan.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Think tank calls for more virus relief


content_text:
WEATHERING A PANDEMIC:
 To remain competitive, the hotel group would ‘take advantage of the slow season’ to upgrade its services and products, its chairman said

Formosa International Hotels Corp (FIH, 晶華國際酒店集團) yesterday said that its board of directors would not collect a bonus from last year’s earnings and senior executives would take a temporary pay cut of 30 percent to help the company ride out the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was made after the board approved last year’s earnings results. The nation’s top hotel and restaurant operator posted NT$1.38 billion (US$45.39 million) in net profit, or earnings per share of NT$10.58.

That represents a 2 percent decline from a year earlier, as the group can no longer recognize income from properties overseas after selling its majority stakes to InterContinental Hotels Group PLC.

“I’m grateful to the board directors and senior executives for their understanding and sacrifices,” FIH chairman Steven Pan (潘思亮) said.

“The group is to take advantage of the slow season to upgrade its products and services so that it can remain competitive during this tough time,” he said.

FIH’s move came after top retail and online travel brand Lion Travel Service Co (雄獅旅行社) last week introduced similar measures, which Pan praised as “admirable.”

The board also called on the government to focus on the plight facing the tourism and hospitality industry due to the pandemic.

Major hotel chains in Taiwan have seen their business plunge by 30 to 50 percent from a year earlier as foreign tourist arrivals have come to a virtual standstill, while domestic travelers favor staying home to avoid being exposed to the virus.

FIH said that it would distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.92 per share based on earnings from the second half of last year, as it has sufficient liquidity in the medium term.

The company had already distributed a cash dividend of NT$6.12 per share based on earnings made in the first half of last year.

Despite its generous payout scheme, FIH shares tumbled 5.2 percent to close at NT$94.8 yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.

They have dropped 43.57 percent so far this year, more than the broader market’s decline of 25.9 percent.

The group, which owns the Regent Taipei, Silks Place (晶英) and Just Sleep (捷絲旅) hotel brands, as well as independent restaurants, is seeking to shore up business through major discount offers, as its peers are doing. Many are also launching takeout food services to drive up food and beverage sales.

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title: Board, executives lose out to help FIH


content_text:
The Transitional Justice Commission is reportedly planning on validating and announcing 85 historical sites of injustice, as well as proposing legislative suggestions for preserving them.

After consulting experts and using the UN’s International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as reference, the commission has drafted and finished revising key points in its final report on validating historical sites of injustice, which refer to places where those in power violated human rights during the authoritarian period.

The incidents span 1945 to 1992 and are mainly places where human rights violations occurred during the 228 Incident and the White Terror era, a commission member said.

More sites might be added, as investigation and research continue, the member said.

According to anonymous sources, the Yuan Ting police station in Keelung is one of the places that might be listed as a historical site of injustice.

The commission has also asked experts to produce a map of the sites.

Basic mapping data have been completed for six places, including the Investigation Bureau’s Ankang Reception House, sources said.

The commission has also arranged guided tours led by political victims to help visitors understand the environments in which people were detained during the authoritarian period.

The commission found that the Investigation Bureau set up a quasi-secret confinement center in the Taipei Detention Center that held political prisoners during the later stages of the Martial Law era.

In terms of investigations of historical sites of injustice, the commission has joined the New Taipei City Government in completing a boundary survey of the former Ankang execution grounds.

The Ankang site is where many political prisoners were executed after the mid-1950s, the commission said, adding that those who were executed there included Tang Shou-jen (湯守仁) and those involved in the Taiyuan Incident.

It was the longest-used execution site during the time of authoritarian rule, it said.

The commission said that its final report is to recommend a principle of preservation of the plans for historical sites of injustice.

For cases whose preservation involves property rights, major public interest, the financial burden of local self-governing groups or other matters that require the principle of legal reservation, the commission is considering proposing legislative suggestions for preserving historical sites of injustice, it added.

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title: Commission considers validating injustice sites


content_text:
PLANNING AHEAD:
 The company said that it has 30 billion euros of liquidity available to cope with extra cash requirements related to the coronavirus

European aviation giant Airbus SE yesterday said that it would cancel its planned dividend payment for last year and also abandon its earnings forecasts for this year because of the economic uncertainty sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have withdrawn our 2020 guidance due to the volatility of the situation,” Airbus chief executive officer Guillaume Faury said in a statement.

As part of measures to bolster the group’s liquidity and balance sheet in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus would also “withdraw the 2019 dividend proposal of 1.80 euros per share with an overall cash value of approximately 1.4 billion euros” (US$1.5 billion), the statement said.

“Our first priority is protecting people while supporting efforts globally to curb the spread of the coronavirus,” Faury said. “We are also safeguarding our business to protect the future of Airbus and to ensure we can return to efficient operations once the situation recovers.”

Faury said that he was “convinced that Airbus and the broader aerospace sector would overcome this critical period.”

To ensure Airbus’ financial flexibility, the board of directors had agreed to secure a new credit facility amounting to 15 billion euros in addition to the existing 3 billion-euro revolving credit facility, the statement said.

With these decisions, Airbus would have “significant liquidity available to cope with additional cash requirements related to the coronavirus. Available liquidity now amounts to approximately 30 billion euros,” it said.

Airbus said that the measures were intended to “secure business continuity for itself even in a protracted crisis.”

Airbus is scheduled to hold its annual shareholders meeting in Amsterdam on April 16, but is discouraging physical attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The group had already on Sunday announced that it planned to partially resume production and assembly work at its plants in France and Spain following four days of health and security checks.

France and Spain host some Airbus civil and military assembly lines and manufacture parts needed to preserve Airbus operations in other countries, mainly in the UK and Germany, but also at satellite assembly sites in the US and China.

Last year, Airbus, which employs a global workforce of 135,000, generated revenues of about 70 billion euros.

The firm’s halt for deep cleaning and to space workers on production lines were echoed by similar steps at some suppliers last week, but there are fears that shortages in the supply chain could quickly disrupt output again, industry sources said.

US rival Boeing Co is also leaning toward a temporary stoppage at its twin-aisle jet factories, people familiar with the matter said last week.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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title: Airbus cancels dividend, this year’s forecasts


content_text:
Since the novel coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December last year, COVID-19 has rapidly spread to more than 148 countries. The WHO has declared it a pandemic.

As of Thursday last week, there were at least 191,000 confirmed cases and more than 7,800 deaths globally. Taiwan’s confirmed cases were 108 and it had reported one death.

In preventing the first wave of the virus spreading from China to the island, Taiwan’s performance was outstanding. We held firm. We have won praise from all over the world — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they would like to use the Taiwanese model to combat the pandemic.

The success of Taiwan’s efforts against virus is due to seven factors: a bitter lesson learned from the SARS outbreak in 2002; a high-quality, low-cost health insurance system; effective leadership with professionals in charge; joint efforts by industry and government to produce medical supplies; sound household registration and local medical facilities; a well designed mechanism for tracking people at risk of infection; and sacrifices by our physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers.

The latest data show that Taiwan is facing a wave of cases imported from other countries. Of the 108 confirmed cases, 78 were imported and 30 were from local transmission. The second wave is coming, so everyone should cooperate with disease prevention efforts.

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has indicated that it needs to implement tougher guidelines to slow the virus’ spread as uncertainty is casting a pall on stock markets and the economy might be headed toward a recession.

The CECC has stipulated four restrictions: foreign travelers are to be denied entry into Taiwan, with the exception of diplomats and businesspeople fulfilling commercial contracts; people are urged to refrain from unnecessary overseas travel; people are to be placed under mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival in Taiwan; and school students and teachers are prohibited from traveling abroad until the end of this semester.

Despite Article 10 of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of residence, the travel restrictions are part of an emergency situation, so are not a violation of the document.

While people have the right to travel, at this critical moment, they should practice social responsibility by cooperating with disease prevention efforts.

If we lose the battle in the second wave, the whole country will suffer enormously.

To cushion the economic impact of the virus, the Legislative Yuan passed the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), allocating NT$60 billion (US$1.97 billion), part of which might be used to alleviate losses caused by delays or cancelations of overseas travel.

COVID-19 has spread all over the world and most countries have closed their borders. Even the US and Canada have closed their shared 6,000km border to all non-essential travel. The EU announced that its 27 member countries have closed their borders. Foreign travelers are barred entry almost everywhere.

Former US president John F. Kennedy’s famous call for his countrymen to uphold their social responsibility is appropriate in these times.

Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the US on Jan. 20, 1961.

In his inaugural address, he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, saying: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

The coronavirus is not under control in this country and each one of us is going to have to take it seriously.

In the war against COVID-19, our fate is in our own hands.

Lee Po-chih is professor emeritus of economics and former vice president of National University of Kaohsiung.

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title: Social responsibility the key issue


title: Industrial production drops due to virus

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BRIGHT SIDE:
 Output from the electronic components industry soared 24.4 percent annually in the first two months of the year due to the deployment of 5G technology

Industrial production last month declined 1.85 percent from January, but surged 20.34 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

The monthly decline was mostly due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which dampened overall production last month, the ministry said.

It attributed the annual increase to a low comparison base last year, as the Lunar New Year holiday last year fell in February.

In the first two months of this year, industrial production increased 7.85 percent annually on the back of the contributions from the manufacturing sector, which saw output expand 8.27 percent, the highest in three years.

Throughout the two-month period, output from the electronic components industry — the manufacturing sector’s largest contributor — hit a record high as it soared 24.4 percent year-on-year, the ministry said, adding that growth was driven by increasing production across wafer and chip packaging foundries as the deployment of 5G technology picks up speed.

Output of the computer, electronic goods and optical components industry similarly posted a record high over the period, increasing 9.6 percent year-on-year.

The increase was due to the popularity of multi-camera smartphones and cloud-based applications, as well as growing production of optoelectronics, network and communication devices, and servers, the ministry said.

However, Taiwan’s non-tech industries saw output decline across the board in January and last month.

The chemical materials industry posted a 0.05 percent decline in production as state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣中油) petrochemical plant in Kaohsiung underwent a routine inspection, the ministry said, adding that the industry’s production was further affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others — such as the machinery equipment industry and the automobile and auto parts industry, which posted annual declines of 13.89 percent and 2.64 percent respectively — were equally affected by the spread of the coronavirus, which cast a pall over market demand, the ministry said.

It said that output of the base metal industry contracted 2.33 percent year-on-year as international steel markets remained weak.

The ministry forecast an increase in production for the manufacturing sector due to upcoming 5G, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence applications, as well as due to Taiwanese companies moving production home, but said that uncertainties shrouding the global markets remain.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and plummeting crude oil prices, domestic production might suffer due to a reduction in market demand and investments, it said.

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Tong Hsing Electronic Industries Inc (同欣電), an image sensor packaging services arm of Yageo Corp (國巨), yesterday said that the COVID-19 pandemic has not negatively affected demand and it expects revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage year-on-year this quarter, despite it being likely to decline by a single-digit percentage quarter-on-quarter from NT$2.09 billion (US$68.7 million) due to seasonal weakness.

“Our business performance will meet our guidance as customer demand remains intact, despite the COVID-19 outbreak,” Tong Hsing president Heinz Ru (呂紹萍) told investors in a teleconference.

The pandemic has had a minor impact on the firm’s factory in the Philippines due to transportation restrictions, but it is mainly operating normally as export-oriented industries are exempt from the quarantine measures imposed by the Philippine government, Ru said.

The company’s plants in Taipei and Taoyuan are also operating normally, thanks to a smooth supply of raw materials, he said.

“The first quarter will be very different this year compared with the same period in previous years. We expect strong growth this quarter and are also optimistic about the second-quarter outlook,” he said.

CMOS image sensor (CIS) packaging services would grow at the fastest rate this quarter, supported by growing demand for higher-resolution cameras for smartphones in China and for multiple-camera handsets, he said.

To cope with strong demand for CIS services, Tong Hsing plans to more than double its monthly capacity to 160,000 wafers at its plant in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭), Ru said.

As a result, capital expenditure this year is set to soar to NT$2.17 billion from NT$657.25 million last year, the company said.

Tong Hsing expects the CIS business to become its biggest source of revenue this year, replacing the ceramic substrate business, following the acquisition of CIS service provider Kingpak Technology Inc (勝麗), it said.

Ceramic substrates accounted for 40 percent of the company’s revenue last year.

Tong Hsing posted a net profit of NT$741.96 million for last year, down 26.8 percent from NT$1.01 billion in 2018, primarily due to foreign-exchange losses of NT$42 million during the final quarter of the year.

Earnings per share fell to NT$4.49 from NT$6.13.

Gross margin last year shrank to 21.5 percent from 25.7 percent in 2018 due to an unfavorable product mix.

Revenue rose 0.2 percent to NT$7.43 billion last year, from NT$7.41 billion in 2018.

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title: Demand remains intact: Tong Hsing


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DBS Bank Ltd yesterday hacked its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 0.9 percent, down from its estimate of 2.3 percent two months earlier, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing financial market volatility.

The bank’s latest forecast was even lower than London-based IHS Markit Ltd’s estimate of 1 percent, while other research institutes’ projections range from 1.6 percent to 2.6 percent.

Taiwan’s economic momentum is being negatively affected by the pandemic, DBS said.

The rapid spread of the disease from Asia to Europe and the US has dampened the bank’s previous expectation of a “V-shaped” global rebound in the second quarter aided by China’s supply chain being restored and a pick-up in demand, DBS economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in the report.

“Despite China’s recovery, weakness in production and consumption outside of China will likely continue to weigh on the global economy next quarter,” Ma said.

The pandemic has also triggered turbulence in global financial markets, which would negatively affect the real economy, she added.

In Taiwan, an economic downcycle began this quarter due to disruptions to its China-centered supply chain, while outlook for the second quarter is also deteriorating due to decreasing demand from the US and Europe, Ma said.

“The risk of a technical recession is looming,” she said.

DBS also trimmed its GDP growth forecast for South Korea from 2.2 percent to 0.8 percent for the same reason.

If the predictions are accurate, they would be the lowest figures in Taiwan and South Korea since 2009, Ma said.

Japan’s economy, which reported a quarterly contraction of 7.1 percent last quarter, is predicted to enter a recession this year with an annual decline of 0.6 percent due to the effects of COVID-19, Ma said.

Given the negative short-term rates in Japan and lowered rates in South Korea and Taiwan following rate cuts by central banks last week, “the room for further monetary easing is very limited in these three economies,” Ma said.

“Fiscal policy will need to play a bigger role in cushioning the fallout of COVID-19 and supporting growth going forward,” she said.

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title: DBS slashes GDP growth forecast


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A two-hour drive south of Amsterdam in Veldhoven, workers decked out head-to-toe in protective gear toil in vast assembly halls. Before entering the inner sanctuary of the facilities, they meticulously layer on masks, gloves and special socks. A single speck of dust or a hair can have devastating effects on production. The result of all this painstaking process is an environment that is 10,000 times more purified than outside.

As COVID-19 grips the world, it might just be the safest place to work right now.

The teams belong to ASML Holding NV, which holds a de facto monopoly on the industry of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines needed to make next-generation chips.

Each machine costs about 150 million euros (US$161 million) and are mainly shipped to Taiwan, the US and South Korea, where companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co rely on them to make faster, cheaper and more energy efficient semiconductors.

ASML manufacturing staff operate in an environment that is literally shielded from the coronavirus pandemic that has forced millions of workers around the world to isolate themselves from colleagues to slow the spread of the disease.

As the rest of the Netherlands and much of the continent locks down, work in ASML’s Veldhoven clean rooms has continued largely unhindered, potentially giving the company an edge when corporate life returns to normal.

“So far we have been able to keep our production going,” ASML chief strategy officer Frits van Hout said. “The situation is of course dynamic. We encounter challenges as with every lockdown our suppliers will be affected, directly or indirectly.”

Like other companies, ASML has also implemented a raft of contingency measures — from segmenting staff to drawing up plans if disaster strikes at a key supplier — so it can keep manufacturing equipment for chipmakers around the world.

Workers are split into two teams and are screened for virus symptoms via infrared thermal cameras at the entrance of the clean room in Veldhoven.

Social distancing protocols are in effect, and the company has spaced out the morning and night shift to ensure the groups do not meet, ASML said.

Clean rooms are highly specialized infrastructure that is costly to set up and maintain, making that kind of environment difficult to replicate in other industries.

The biggest risk for the company lies not so much in its own operations seizing up, but in a potential breakdown of its 5,000 suppliers, 790 of which provide materials and equipment that are used directly to produce the ASML systems.

Besides its ultra-sanitized work environment, ASML has the benefit of making machines that are considered almost recession-proof, given its commanding lead in an industry on the cusp of another technological leap: high-speed 5G networks.

“Most customers want EUV and if ASML cannot deliver due to such a factor, then they know they have to wait until the next quarter because you cannot get it anywhere else,” said Marcel Achterberg, executive director of equity research at KBC Bank.

The prized EUV machines are the size of a bus. Customers can order older equipment, but EUV delivers better resolution, smaller components and improved performance in the chips it produces.

They are a crucial source of revenue for ASML’s customers, too.

By the end of next year, as much as half of TSMC’s revenue would depend at least partly on some EUV processes, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Masahiro Wakasugi said.

Volume production of TSMC’s most cutting-edge 5-nanometer chips, which use EUV, is still “on track” for the first half of this year as previously stated by management, TSMC spokeswoman Nina Kao (高孟華) said.

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title: Work unhindered by virus in world’s cleanest room


title: Australia’s jobless queue for help

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Jobless Australians yesterday flooded unemployment offices around the country as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the COVID-19 pandemic would cause an economic crisis akin to the Great Depression.

After a record 29 years of economic growth, Australia is poised to spiral into recession as the global coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on the country’s economy despite an A$189 billion (US$109 billion) government relief package.

In scenes not seen in Australia for decades, queues stretched around the block at unemployment offices around the country as the forced closure of pubs, casinos, churches and gyms began at midday yesterday.

People queue up outside a Centrelink office in Marrickville, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, yesterday.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

An online portal for government services also crashed as job seekers rushed to register for income support payments, which have been temporarily doubled by A$550 a fortnight to help people cope with the coronavirus crisis.

With tens of thousands of jobs on the line, Morrison told his compatriots that they faced an economic crisis “the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression.”

“They are lining up at Centrelink offices as we speak — something unimaginable at this scale, only weeks ago,” he told parliament. “They have lost their jobs, many, and we know many more will. This is the biggest economic shock our nation has faced in generations.”

Services Australia, which operates the social welfare offices known as Centrelink, said that it was “experiencing very high demand” and urged people not to visit unless there was a “critical need” to do so.

Ahead of closing non-essential services, Australia had already shut its borders to international arrivals, while some interstate borders have been effectively shuttered and all non-essential travel is banned.

Morrison has said that the measures would remain in place across the country for up to six months, with stricter rules looming in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus.

He said the “one in a 100-year event” meant that 2020 would be “the toughest year of our lives.”

Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 has lost 38 percent on coronavirus fears since its peak in the middle of last month, falling about 8 percent yesterday to lows not seen since November 2012.

The nation has recorded more than 1,600 cases of COVID-19, with infection rates accelerating in the most populous states. Seven people have died from the disease.

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title: Working at home triggers demand for chips, laptops

content_text:
SOCIAL DISTANCING:
 China’s cloud infrastructure buildup has helped push up prices, with spot prices of DRAM chips rising more than 6 percent since Feb. 20

With more employees working from home to help slow the spread of COVID-19, demand is surging for laptops and network peripherals, as well as components along the supply chain such as chips, as companies rush to build virtual offices.

Many firms have withdrawn earnings forecasts, anticipating a drop in consumer demand and an economic slump, but a better performance at electronics retailers and chipmakers is hinting at benefits from the shift in work culture.

Over the past month, governments and companies globally have been advising people to stay safe indoors. Over the same period, South Korea — home of the world’s biggest memorychip maker, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd — yesterday reported a 20 percent jump in semiconductor exports.

Pointing to further demand, nearly one in three Americans have been ordered to stay home, while Italy has banned internal travel.

“With more people working and learning from home during the outbreak, there has been rising demand for Internet services ... meaning data centers need bigger pipes to carry the traffic,” Cape Investment & Securities Co analyst Park Sung-soon said.

A South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy official said that cloud computing has boosted sales of server chips, “while an increase in telecommuting in the United States and China has also been a main driver of huge server demand.”

In Japan, laptop maker Dynabook Inc reported brisk demand which it partly attributed to companies encouraging teleworking.

Australian electronics retailer JB Hifi Ltd also said that it has seen an “acceleration” in demand from both commercial and retail customers for “essential products they need to respond to and prepare” for the coronavirus, such as devices that support remote working, as well as home appliances.

China is leading chip demand, analysts said, as cloud service providers such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Baidu Inc (百度) responded to Beijing’s efforts to contain the coronavirus.

“Cloud companies opened their platforms, allowing new and existing customers to use more resources for free to help maintain operations,” Canalys analyst Wong Yih Khai said. “This set the precedent for technology companies around the world that offer cloud-based services in their response to helping organizations affected by coronavirus.”

China’s cloud infrastructure buildup has helped push up chip prices, with spot prices of DRAM chips rising more than 6 percent since Feb. 20, data from price tracker DRAMeXchange showed.

UBS Group AG last week forecast average contract prices of DRAM chips to rise as much as 10 percent quarter-on-quarter in the second, led by a more than 20 percent jump in server chips.

It said it expects DRAM chips to be modestly undersupplied until the third quarter of next year, with demand from server customers rising 31 percent both this year and next year.

Concerns over supply disruption have also contributed to a price rise.

“You’ve got lots of OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and systems integrators in the global market who have intense demand for memory now,” said Andrew Perlmutter, chief strategy officer at ITRenew, a company that buys and reworks used data center equipment for resale. “Nobody is shutting down their factories — it is still production as normal — but people worry about memory supply in particular, so they want to get out ahead of production.”

About 69 percent of electronics manufacturers have flagged possible supplier delays averaging three weeks, a March 13 poll by industry trade group IPC International showed.

Half of those polled expected business to normalize by July, while nearly three-quarters pointed to at least October.

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title: World Business Quick Take

content_text:
ENERGY

Exxon to cut expenses

Exxon Mobil Corp is notifying contractors and vendors of planned near-term cuts in capital and operating expenses over the COVID-19 pandemic, and would announce the plans once they are final, company spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry said on Sunday. Exxon on Saturday reduced production at its refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and cut 1,800 contract workers on Friday, sources said. The company is also expected to delay a US$30 billion liquified natural gas plant in Mozambique.

ENERGY

Shell to slash costs

Royal Dutch Shell PLC yesterday said that it would cut costs and capital expenditure by billions of US dollars due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic, which has sparked an oil price collapse. The Anglo-Dutch energy major announced in a statement that it would lower operating costs by US$3 billion to US$4 billion over the next 12 months, and would reduce its annual spending to US$20 billion from US$25 billion.

CONSTRUCTION

Vinci targets out of reach

French construction and concessions group Vinci SA yesterday said that it would not be able to meet its targets for this year as the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected its activities. The company also said in a statement that it was not possible at this stage to estimate the effect of the health crisis on its financial statements given uncertainty about the duration and the scale of the pandemic. Vinci expects a pronounced but time-limited decline in revenue.

RETAIL

Primark shuttering all stores

Primark is closing all of its stores, a loss of about ￡650 million (US$756 million) worth of net sales a month, and would stop placing new orders with suppliers, its parent company said yesterday as the coronavirus outbreak worsens. Associated British Foods PLC said that the clothing retailer, which accounts for about half of the group’s revenue and profit, has shut all of its 376 outlets in 12 countries until further notice. AB Foods said it has not seen a material impact on its sugar, grocery, ingredients and agriculture operations.

MALAYSIA

GDP to slow to 2%: analysts

Malaysia’s economy is set to grow at its slowest pace since the 2009 financial crisis as it struggles with a trio of troubles: COVID-19, an oil-price crash and political upheaval. Analysts from Fitch Ratings to United Overseas Bank Ltd (大華銀行) expect Malaysia’s economy to grow about 2 percent this year. That compares with the government’s estimate that GDP would expand 3.6 to 4 percent, which already accounts for the effects of the virus. The central bank is set to release its annual report on the economy tomorrow, where it is expected to revise its outlook.

ECONOMY

Worse recession forecast

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc said that COVID-19 would inflict greater economic pain than they previously expected as they warned of a record plunge in US output in the second quarter and a deeper global recession. Morgan Stanley on Sunday forecast that the US’ GDP would fall 30.1 percent in the April-to-June quarter. Goldman predicted that the world economy would contract about 1 percent this year, which would be a bigger decline than even that witnessed in 2009 amid the financial crisis. Goldman had already projected a 24 percent drop in US output in the next quarter.

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South Korea paved the way for companies to develop test kits by slashing red tape, and are poised to sell kits to the US

By Chad Terhune, Dan Levine, Jin Hyunjoo and Jane Lanhee Lee / Reuters, SEOUL

In late January, South Korean health officials summoned representatives from more than 20 medical companies from their Lunar New Year celebrations to a conference room tucked inside a busy train station.

One of the country’s top infectious-disease officials delivered an urgent message: South Korea needed an effective test immediately to detect the novel coronavirus, then running rampant in China.

He promised the companies swift regulatory approval.

Although there were only four known cases in South Korea at that point, “we were very nervous. We believed that it could develop into a pandemic,” one attendee, Lee Sang-won, an infectious-diseases expert at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters.

“We acted like an army,” Lee said.

A week after the Jan. 27 meeting, the agency approved one company’s diagnostic test. Another company soon followed. By the end of last month, South Korea was making headlines around the world for its drive-through screening centers and ability to test thousands of people daily.

South Korea’s swift action stands in stark contrast to what has transpired in the US. Seven weeks after the train station meeting, South Korea has tested well over 290,000 people and identified more than 8,000 infections. New cases are falling off: Ninety-three were reported on Wednesday last week, down from a daily peak of 909 two weeks earlier.

The US, whose first case was detected on the same day as South Korea’s, is not even close to meeting demand for testing. About 60,000 tests have been run by public and private labs in a country of 330 million, federal officials said on Tuesday last week.

As a result, US officials do not fully grasp how many Americans have been infected and where they are concentrated — crucial to containment efforts.

While more than 7,000 US cases had been identified as of Wednesday last week, as many as 96 million people could be infected in coming months, and 480,000 could die, according to a projection prepared for the American Hospital Association by James Lawler, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“You cannot fight what you cannot see,” said Roger Klein, a former laboratory medical director at the Cleveland Clinic and previously an adviser to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on clinical laboratory issues.

How the US fell so far behind South Korea, according to infectious-disease experts, clinicians and state and local officials, is a tale of many contrasts in the two nations’ public health systems: a streamlined bureaucracy versus a congested one, bold versus cautious leadership, and a sense of urgency versus a reliance on protocol.

The delayed and chaotic testing in the US will cost lives, potentially including those of doctors and nurses, many medical experts predict. Already more than 100 people have died overall and fears of rampant spread have led to extraordinary restrictions on social interaction, upending the US economy, schools, hospitals and everyday life.

“It makes me feel like I’m living in a farce,” said Ritu Thamman, a cardiologist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Even hospital staff who might have been exposed cannot get a test, Thamman said.

“We are a rich country, but we don’t have these kinds of things?” she asked.

The administration of US President Donald Trump was tripped up by government rules and conventions, former officials and public health experts say. Instead of drafting the private sector early on to develop tests, as South Korea did, US health officials relied, as is customary, on test kits prepared by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), some of which proved faulty. Then, sticking to its time-consuming vetting procedures, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not approve tests other than the US CDC’s until Feb. 29, more than five weeks after discussions with outside labs had begun.

Meanwhile, in the absence of enough kits, the US CDC for weeks insisted on narrow criteria for testing, recommending it only when a person had recently been to China or other hot spots, or had contact with someone known to be infected.

As a result, the federal government failed to screen an untold number of Americans and missed opportunities to contain the spread, clinicians and public health experts say.

South Korea took a risk, releasing briskly vetted tests, then circling back later to spot check their effectiveness. By contrast, the FDA said it wanted to ensure, upfront, that the tests were accurate before they went out to millions of Americans.

“There are always opportunities to learn from situations like this one,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who has been on the job only three months, told reporters. “But one thing I will stand firm on: We cannot compromise on the quality of the tests because what would be worse than no tests at all is wildly inaccurate test results.”

In a statement, US CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said: “This process has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked.”

However, “more and more state labs have come online, increasing our public health system’s ability to detect and respond to cases,” Haynes said.

RAMPING UP

Bombarded by criticism amid a re-election campaign, Trump on Friday vowed to ramp up production of test kits in partnership with private companies and to make the diagnostic tests more widely available at hospitals and in-store parking lots.

This week, the FDA said more than 35 universities, hospitals and lab companies had begun running their own tests, under the agency’s revised policy.

However, it might be weeks before enough tests are on hand to fill the need.

“The idea of anybody getting [tested] easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set up for that,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told a US House of Representatives committee last week. “That is a failing. Let’s admit it.”

It is a problem many Americans, accustomed to hearing they have the most advanced medical care in the world, find hard to fathom.

“I don’t know how we messed this up so badly,” said Ruth Blodgett, 65, whose husband of the same age could not get a COVID-19 test on Saturday in an urgent care clinic outside Rochester, New York, even though he was coughing and the doctor ordered one for him. “We got caught flat-footed. For America, that’s unacceptable.”

At the pivotal Jan. 27 meeting at the Seoul train station, South Korean government leaders told companies they were cleared for takeoff.

“They were told that the ‘emergency use authorization’ would be coming, so hurry up and develop the kits,” said Lee Hyukmin, head of the coronavirus task force at the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, who was at the meeting.

One of the companies was Kogene Biotech Co, whose test kit was the only one to work initially. The government announced its approval on Feb. 4.

“The government acted quickly,” said Myoah Baek, an executive director at Kogene. The South Korean CDC “disclosed information on test methods so test kit makers were able to speed up development.”

Lee Hyukmin said that the government was swift, but not reckless.

“Of course, a kit that’s approved in one week isn’t as good as one that goes through a year of clinical trials,” he said.

So in the early days, the government cross-checked cases to ensure the tests were working properly, he said.

Cross-checking involved verifying that labs got the same result the government did on an initial pool of patient samples. As of last week, nearly 100 labs were available to perform tests nationwide, according to government figures.

South Korea’s rapid response to the novel coronavirus resulted from scars of the past.

In the aftermath of the 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), critics slammed then-South Korean president Park Geun-hye and her administration for a slow response and a lack of transparency. Public confidence waned in Park, who was impeached in 2017 following an unrelated corruption scandal.

The country had 186 MERS cases, more than anywhere outside the Middle East, including 38 deaths.

“We can’t ever forget the incident. It is engraved in our mind,” Lee Sang-won said. “We were hurt so much, and we felt remorseful.”

On Jan. 31, only days after the Seoul meeting, the HHS declared the novel coronavirus a public health emergency, citing a similar pronouncement from the WHO.

HHS oversees the separate operations of the FDA and the US CDC, key agencies involved in responding to the pandemic. The US CDC was responsible for developing the initial test kits for the virus. Then, under longstanding protocols, the FDA needed to approve the test before it could be sent to state and local labs across the US. Private labs and large hospitals could develop their own tests or work off the US CDC version.

On Feb. 3, amid the preparations to address the emergency, the FDA hosted an all-day conference at its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, which had been scheduled well before the outbreak. Regulators, researchers and industry representatives gathered to discuss the general process for putting diagnostic tests cleared under emergencies on the path to permanent approval by the FDA.

Although COVID-19 was now the hottest topic in global medicine, a broadcast of the meeting conveyed little sense of urgency about the epidemic sweeping the globe. It was mentioned in passing, but regulators mostly stuck to their Powerpoint presentations.

In his remarks, Timothy Stenzel, who oversees the FDA’s review of diagnostic tests, spoke broadly about the agency’s mission to protect public health.

“It’s our goal to be first in the world wherever possible to authorize new tests,” Stenzel said.

Carolyn Hiller, a program director at the Medical Device Innovation Consortium, which hosted the event alongside the FDA, said that there were discussions with the agency about postponing the meeting because of the coronavirus outbreak, but both sides opted to go ahead.

“The whole coronavirus thing blew up in real time while this was happening,” she said.

Stenzel did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, the FDA acknowledged that COVID-19 was not a “specific topic on the agenda.”

However, it said that the agency already was talking to test developers and “the conference was timely and addressed issues important” to firms and institutions looking to produce a test.

The following day, Feb. 4, the FDA greenlighted a US CDC test kit for the virus.

CHAOS

Weeks of chaos followed.

By Feb. 8, some states and other public labs were complaining that the US CDC’s test was not working because of a flawed component that gave inconclusive results. Three days later, the US CDC told the labs that it was manufacturing a new component.

As of the middle of last month, the federal government remained stuck in first gear. The US CDC was the primary supplier of tests across much of the country and other labs could not immediately deploy their own without the FDA’s blessing.

HHS said it has assigned a team of outside scientists to examine what went wrong with the US CDC’s initial batch of tests, such as whether there was a manufacturing defect, flawed design or contamination in the agency’s lab.

The precise problem has not been identified.

The US CDC did not send out new test kits until late last month.

Meanwhile, a crucial window was closing on containing the virus, public health experts say, with by then more than 60 people having been tested positive for COVID-19 in the US.

The US emergency declaration issued in late January created additional hurdles that hindered a wider expansion in testing, according to former federal officials and lab professionals.

The declaration eased the way for drugmakers to pursue vaccines and antiviral treatments for COVID-19, but public health experts said that the same declaration made it harder to expand diagnostic testing outside the US CDC.

That is because the declaration required diagnostic tests developed by individual labs, such as those at hospitals or universities, to undergo greater scrutiny than in non-emergencies — presumably because the stakes are higher.

“Paradoxically, it increased regulations on diagnostics while it created an easier pathway for vaccines and antivirals,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior academic at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. “There was a real foul-up with diagnostic tests that has exposed a flaw in the United States’ pandemic response plan.”

William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said that the US CDC and FDA stuck to their conventional playbook for too long.

‘DON’T PANIC’

“Traditional public health thinking is: ‘Don’t create widespread panic and don’t go over the top. Keep the testing narrow in a precision rifle approach rather than a mass, shotgun approach,’” Schaffner said. “That failed in this instance. This virus acted differently and it overwhelmed the US system. South Korea had a much better sense of what was happening.”

In a statement on Tuesday last week, the US CDC said: “After finding out that some labs could not fully verify the test, CDC began working on a solution and identifying the source of the problem... CDC, in conjunction with FDA, determined how to move forward and shared this information immediately with public health labs.”

The statement also suggested that the agency was not exclusively responsible for testing delays.

The US CDC was “not an impediment” to getting large-scale commercial testing started, the statement said.

That was the role of the FDA, and as the initial US cases were being detected in late January and early last month, US CDC director Robert Redfield highlighted the need for that agency to act, the statement said.

Alberto Gutierrez, who led the FDA’s office overseeing diagnostic testing from 2009 to 2017, said the agency proceeded with caution because it saw itself as the last line of defense against opportunistic companies looking to cash in on threats to public health.

“There is money to be made in an emergency, and a lot of people try to take advantage of that,” Gutierrez said. “The problem the FDA faces is, do you let it become the Wild West?”

“The FDA had good intentions,” he said.

As US efforts faltered, South Korean officials cleared a test from a second company, Seegene Inc, on Feb. 12.

With many more tests in hand, health officials were well armed to attack a fast-moving virus and aggressively track down people who might have been exposed. This testing-backed offensive helped South Korea reduce the number of new cases over a matter of weeks, serving as a model for other countries grappling with the pandemic.

In the middle of last month, cases spiked at a secretive church in the southeastern city of Daegu. On Feb. 26, Daegu city officials said they would test every single member of the church, including those without symptoms.

As of March 10, Daegu said that it had tested almost all of the 10,000 members of the church in that area, and about 40 percent came back positive. The city, which now accounts for about three-quarters of total infections in South Korea, has seen new cases sharply drop.

On Wednesday last week, officials announced 46 new cases compared with a peak of 741 cases on Feb. 29.

The country went from two approved test makers on Feb. 18 to five as of last week, according to the South Korean CDC.

“To my surprise, test kit makers were able to boost production quickly,” Lee Sang-won said.

By Feb. 24, state and local labs in the US were pleading with the FDA to relax its rules so the nation no longer had to rely so heavily on the US CDC for testing.

They asked Hahn for “enforcement discretion” so they could use their own lab-developed tests.

“We are now many weeks into the response with still no diagnostic or surveillance test available outside of CDC for the vast majority of our member laboratories,” Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, and Grace Kubin, lab services director at the Texas Department of State Health Services, wrote in a letter to Hahn on Feb. 24.

In an interview, Becker, whose group represents more than 100 state and local health laboratories, called the letter a “hail Mary” pass, an act of desperation.

“The entire lab community was really coming unglued. We knew we could develop tests and were very capable of doing that, but we felt hamstrung” Becker said.

He said labs wanted the FDA to make more tests available so they could run more patient samples at a faster pace.

Two days after receiving Becker’s letter, the FDA commissioner said his agency was ready to approve new outside tests quickly — if its requirements for accuracy were satisfied.

“False diagnostic test results can lead to significant adverse public health consequences,” Hahn wrote to the Association of Public Health Laboratories on Feb. 26 in a letter. “Not only serious implications for individual patient care, but also serious implications for the analyses of disease progression and for public health decisionmaking.”

Under increasing pressure, the FDA relented and removed many of the bureaucratic obstacles.

On Feb. 29, the agency said that public and private labs, including academic medical centers, could start using their own tests before the FDA had completed its full review.

Laboratories had 15 business days to submit a completed application, which could be approved retroactively.

That same day, the Trump administration confirmed the first death in the US from the coronavirus, a man in his 50s in Washington state.

On March 2, Stenzel at the FDA’s diagnostic testing office hosted a webinar for lab test developers, highlighting additional challenges, including a shortage of viral samples needed for validation of test results. Some labs also have reported shortages of other key supplies and ingredients, as well as the need for more trained personnel.

As US regulators rewrote their policies, South Korean municipalities were opening roadside testing facilities across the country, collecting samples in minutes while people sat in their cars.

At a closed-door meeting last week in the US Congress, US Representative Raul Ruiz, a Democrat from California and an emergency-room physician who treated people during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, pressed the FDA commissioner and other members of the Trump administration on why South Korea was lapping the US in its response.

“Why don’t we have drive-through testing like South Korea?” Ruiz asked leaders of the president’s coronavirus task force.

Ruiz told reporters that the officials said they were working on it.

On their own, some hospitals and communities have begun offering drive-through testing in Colorado, New York, Texas and elsewhere.

In recent days, as the public criticism grew louder, Trump appointed a testing czar to improve coordination across agencies. The FDA launched a 24-hour hotline for laboratories needing help to accelerate testing, approved two company applications for higher-volume testing and granted states the flexibility to authorize new tests so labs can bypass the FDA.

Despite the new moves, Ruiz said he fears that America is still weeks away from approaching what South Korea has accomplished.

“I think months have been lost here,” Ruiz said. “Maybe we should look into purchasing South Korea’s tests.”

That might happen.

Kogene and SolGent Co, two of the COVID-19 test makers approved in South Korea, said their companies have an eye on the US market.

“The FDA asked us to proceed with applications quickly,” Kogene executive Myoah Baek said.

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title: How South Korea trounced the US in COVID-19 testing


content_text:
During a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on March 10, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) asked Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) about the issue of iQiyi, China’s largest over-the-top (OTT) media service provider, which according to Fan circumvented regulations and has been operating in Taiwan without approval for years.

If there is a legal loophole, Su said he would negotiate with government agencies about amending the law.

According to Fan, the National Communications Commission (NCC) has said that it cannot regulate iQiyi’s content because it is responsible for regulating the platform, not its content.

In light of this, NCC Acting Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) said that the commission is drafting an Internet audiovisual media service act to regulate OTT providers.

Whether China-based OTT providers should be allowed to operate in Taiwan and how the government should regulate them, regardless of their origin, are different issues.

The government already has regulations for the first issue, as the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) imposes restrictions on the activities of businesses in Taiwan that Chinese have invested in.

At a news conference on March 3 last year, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made a clear statement that OTT providers are not included among the business items that Chinese enterprises are allowed to operate.

In other words, Taiwan already has a legal basis for addressing the question of whether Chinese OTT businesses should be allowed to operate in Taiwan. The real issue is how to properly implement the law to contain China-based OTT providers that are not registered in Taiwan, but operate through a Taiwanese subsidiary or other third party.

How to regulate OTT providers in general is a different issue. Many countries have researched policies over whether and how the government should regulate OTT and similar emerging-media platforms. The EU, for instance, has issued a series of policy white papers on the issue, the majority of which adopt low-intensity control. In Taiwan, the NCC’s Communications Policy white paper takes a similar direction.

Taking into consideration legislation and policies around the world, as well as Taiwan’s special circumstances, OTT regulations here need to focus on a few key aspects:

First, local content and languages must be protected.

Due to concern that foreign content streamed by foreign-based OTT providers, such as YouTube and Netflix, might compress the space for native content in the eurozone, the EU demands that a proportion of OTT catalogs be reserved for European productions in accordance with the latest version of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which was revised in 2018.

In addition to ensuring local content is provided by OTT services, the government should also think about how to protect local productions that use the national languages designated in the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法) rather than focusing on one specific language, which would further marginalize minority languages due to the lack of streaming content on new-media platforms.

Second, content diversity and freedom of expression must be protected.

There have been instances of video-streaming platforms axing programs for containing “politically incorrect” elements. In August, 2017, iQiyi unexpectedly stopped broadcasting the miniseries Days We Stared at the Sun II (他們在畢業的前一天爆炸2) after airing the first episode. The Chinese service reportedly axed it because it used the Sunflower movement as the backdrop to the story.

In May 2018, Tzu Chi Culture and Communication Foundation subsidiary Da Ai TV, which also operates its own OTT platform, pulled its historical drama Jiachang’s Heart (智子之心) after broadcasting only the first two episodes. The drama was reportedly canceled because Chinese netizens criticized it for romanticizing the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945.

Terminating programs due to political concerns is a business consideration, but it also severely stifles artistic freedom and freedom of expression. When drafting a special law, the government should consider how to ensure content diversity, protect freedom of speech and artistic freedom to prevent similar incidents.

Third, China’s cultural “united front” strategy and belittling of Taiwan must be prevented.

Compared with other countries, a unique threat facing Taiwan is China’s “united front” strategy and denigration using cultural means.

For instance, when Taiwanese actors and place names are in credits or scripts, they are often marked “Taiwan, China.” It is also not difficult to imagine that footage containing political symbols of the Republic of China, such as the national emblem and anthem, are deleted or silenced due to political considerations.

Similar instances can be found in Chinese cellphones. To prevent mobile devices from showing degrading references to Taiwan, such as “Taiwan, China,” in the caller’s location and warranty areas, the NCC has asked Chinese manufacturers to sign an affidavit in which they pledge to label Taiwan as a nation in the operating systems settings and built-in applications when they apply for product certification. This has had some effect.

The commission should also consider concrete preventive and enforcement measures to deal with regulations for overseas OTT providers to curb China’s cultural “united front” strategy.

The premise for such regulations is that OTT providers have been authorized to operate in Taiwan and are subject to the government’s management. However, OTT providers with illegal operations in Taiwan via an agent is also an important issue.

Feasible approaches include blocking their Internet connections and prohibiting them from renting server space, but these approaches might require legal authorization.

If the policy banning Chinese enterprises from operating or investing in OTT services remains unchanged, the government must urgently discuss the implementation of supplementary legislative measures.

Liao Shiang is a lawyer.

Translated by Chang Ho-ming

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title: Rules needed for OTT providers

people: 范雲 蘇貞昌


content_text:
PERSONAL REGIMES:
 Brumbies chief executive Phil Thompson said that the players would continue to do ‘a bit of old-school stuff. There’s a hill, run up it, type of thing’

Professional rugby union teams in New Zealand and Australia have ceased training as efforts to establish alternative domestic competitions after the suspension of Super Rugby failed in the face of government moves to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Rugby Australia hoped on Friday next week to launch a competition involving its four Super Rugby teams and the Perth-based Western Force, but now says that competition would not begin until at least May 1.

New Zealand also sought to create a competition among its five Super Rugby franchises, but yesterday said that would not be possible as the government moved toward a more comprehensive national lockdown.

All rugby in New Zealand has now been stopped “for the foreseeable future,” and teams have been told to stop group training.

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson said his organization’s priority is the health of players and fans.

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle said the sport’s stakeholders are united behind the decision to suspend all rugby union at this stage.

“Rugby Australia and the Super Rugby teams have made the decision today to suspend the start of the revised competition on the latest guidance from the various government and health authorities, and our chief medical officer,” Castle said in a statement. “Our priority is the health and welfare of our athletes, and our wider rugby community, as we continue to adapt to an unprecedented and constantly evolving situation for our game and society.”

All Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby teams are to cease training for at least two weeks, though individual players are able to continue personal fitness regimes.

Phil Thompson, chief executive of the Australian conference-leading Brumbies, said that the players should continue to work out “as best they can.”

“A bit of old-school stuff. There’s a hill, run up it, type of thing,” Thompson said.

Coaches are to remain in contact with players by videoconference.

The suspension of play will put heavy financial pressure on the teams and broadcasters. Players have not yet been asked to take pay cuts, but that might come.

In New Zealand, support staff might be eligible for government wage support.

There is so far no indication when the teams could regather, whether any more matches would be played this season or whether the summer Test matches would go ahead.

In related news, Japan’s Top League yesterday said that it has canceled its remaining 42 matches to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, and safeguard the health of players and spectators.

The Top League said it was taking the step because many players would be returning to their home nations after New Zealand, Australia and other nations urged the return of their expatriated citizens.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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title: Aussie, NZ rugby teams cease training


content_text:
CONFIDENCE:
 The sale would finance a stock buyback to bolster the firm’s balance sheet and improve its credit rating, as it says its shares are ‘substantially undervalued’

Softbank Group Corp (SBG) yesterday said that it would sell up to US$41 billion in assets to finance a stock buyback, reduce debts and increase its cash reserves after weeks of heavy losses in its shares.

The firm said that it would buy back US$18 billion of its stock, with the remaining money to be used on paying down debt, bond buybacks and cash reserves, setting a timetable of a year to complete the transactions.

News of the massive buyback sent Softbank stock limit-up, soaring 18.61 percent to ￥3,187 (US$28.98) in the last hour of trade in Tokyo.

Softbank Group Corp chairman Masayoshi Son listens during a news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 12.
 Photo: Bloomberg

“This program will be the largest share buyback and will result in the largest increase in cash balance in the history of SBG, reflecting the firm and unwavering confidence we have in our business,” Softbank chairman Masayoshi Son said in a statement.

“This will allow us to strengthen our balance sheet while significantly reducing debt,” he said, adding that the assets being sold account for “less than 20 percent of the company’s current asset value.”

The firm said it believes its shares are “substantially undervalued” and that the buyback would “further strengthen its balance sheet and enhance its credit rating.”

Softbank has seen its stock sink in the past few weeks on worries about the liquidity of the heavily indebted company, as global financial markets are roiled by fears about the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It had already announced a massive share buyback that prompted S&P Global Ratings to cut the firm’s outlook to negative, a move some analysts said misinterpreted the company’s health.

Some said that yesterday’s move should also be viewed positively.

“It’s not a bad strategy to use their cash for buying back shares when the outlook of the market and the economy is very uncertain,” Chibagin Asset Management Co general manager Yoshihiro Okumura said. “The market took the surprise announcement positively at a time when it’s hard to find good investment destinations.”

Softbank Group is attempting to improve its financial standing after booking massive losses related to the performance of key investments such as WeWork Co and Uber Technologies Inc.

The company has used its US$100 billion Vision Fund to pour enormous resources into the world’s hottest start-ups.

Yet Son’s audacious decisionmaking approach has faced criticism over his commitment to start-ups some say are overvalued and lack clear profit models.

The group last year announced its long-mooted Vision Fund 2, again targeting funds of about US$100 billion, but investors have been slower to commit.

In the latest statement, Softbank Group said that it would appoint new independent board members to improve its governance.

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title: Softbank plans to sell billions in assets


content_text:
Walmart Inc yesterday said that it has temporarily raised entry wages for workers in its e-commerce warehouses by US$2, following similar moves by rivals, as it attempts to manage a shopping surge brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The hike would increase entry wages for workers in e-commerce fulfillment centers or warehouses to between US$15 and US$19 an hour effective immediately through May 25, Walmart said.

The world’s largest retailer, which employs 1.5 million people in the US, has struggled to keep store shelves stocked and fulfill online orders amid panic buying by shoppers spooked by the outbreak.

Medical personnel talk to people at a federal COVID-19 drive-through testing site in a Walmart parking lot on Sunday.
 Photo: AP

The virus has infected more than 32,000 people in the US leading to more than 415 deaths, a Reuters tally showed.

Walmart last week said that it would pay special cash bonuses totaling US$550 million to hourly staff and hire 150,000 temporary workers through the end of May in its stores and fulfillment centers.

Workers in distribution centers, which primarily help stock stores, start at US$17 to US$18 an hour. The starting wage for store workers in most locations remains US$11 an hour, with the average wage among full-time hourly workers at US$14.26.

Rivals such as Amazon.com Inc and Target Corp have also boosted pay and gone on a hiring spree to manage a surge in orders while many clothing and mall-based retailers have been forced to shut stores.

Amazon hiked entry wages to US$17 from US$15 and announced plans to hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the US.

On Saturday, it said that it would raise overtime pay for associates working in its US warehouses.

Target last week said that it would raise its minimum wage by US$2 an hour for store and distribution center workers through May 2.

Walmart officials on Thursday said that they had reached out to industry groups representing hotels and restaurants, offering to hire staff who have recently lost their jobs due to the virus-induced slowdown in tourism and catering.

Yesterday, the company said that new employees could begin work at its facilities in as little as 24 hours after being hired.

It is also offering new hires and current workers a US$250 cash bonus for each new hire referral after 90 days from the new hire’s start.

On Sunday, the retailer said that it has set up federal drive-through coronavirus testing sites in the parking lots of two stores in Illinois.

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title: Walmart ups wage as online orders surge due to virus


content_text:
Olympic gold medalist Van der Burgh warns athletes on ‘unnecessary risk’

Former Olympic swimming champion Cameron van der Burgh says that he has been battling COVID-19 for the past two weeks and that athletes who continue to train for the Tokyo Olympic Games are exposing themselves to “unnecessary risk.”

South Africa’s Van der Burgh won gold in the 100m breaststroke at the 2012 London Olympics and silver in Rio four years later, before retiring in 2018.

He said that while the most severe symptoms of the coronavirus had passed, he was still exhausted by any physical activity.

South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh celebrates after setting a world record to win the men’s 100m breaststroke final at the Olympic Games in London on July 29, 2012.
 Photo: Reuters

“I have been struggling with COVID-19 for 14 days today,” he wrote on Twitter. “By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs (no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at-risk demographic). Although the most severe symptoms (extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours.”

Van der Burgh, 31, said athletes who contract the coronavirus would struggle to get back in peak condition for the Games, which are scheduled to start on July 24, though there have been growing calls for them to be postponed.

Canada yesterday became the first nation to boycott the Games due to the coronavirus pandemic, while Australia told its athletes to prepare for the Olympics to be postponed to next year.

“The loss in body conditioning has been immense and I can only feel for the athletes that contract COVID-19 as they will suffer a great loss of current conditioning through the last training cycle. Infection closer to competition being the worst,” Van der Burgh said. “Athletes will continue to train as there is no clarification regarding the summer Games and thus are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk — and those that do contract will try rush back to training most likely enhancing/extending the damage/recovery time.”

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