The situation regarding the Taoyuan General Hospital cluster, Taiwan’s first COVID-19 cluster since last April and Taiwan’s largest COVID-19 cluster to date, continues to develop. Friday night saw the first COVID-19 death in eight months, after a woman in her eighties part of the cluster died, and was found to have been infected with COVID-19 after her death...
A political crackdown against pro-democracy figures continues in Hong Kong. In the latest series of arrests, earlier this month, eleven individuals were arrested in connection to the Hong Kong “Twelve”, twelve young Hongkongers that were arrested by the Chinese coast guard last August after attempting to flee to Taiwan by speedboat, then held in Shenzhen...
With the cluster of cases linked to the Taoyuan General Hospital having now expanded to a total of fifteen cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center that coordinates Taiwan’s response to COVID-19 has announced that discharged patients that were released from the hospital between January 6 and 19 and their close contacts must undergo a fourteen-day home quarantine...
Over the past week, KMT politicians have begun calling for a lockdown of Taoyuan after a cluster of thirteen cases of COVID-19 connected to the Taoyuan General Hospital broke out. This is the first domestic cluster of COVID-19 since last April. However, the situation in Taoyuan is far from one which would warrant the need for a lockdown, and the KMT's call for a lockdown is simply a means to attack the DPP, disregarding what the human consequences of a lockdown for residents of Taoyuan would be...
DPP Taoyuan city councilor Wang Hao-yu was recalled last week by large margins. 84,582 voted in favor of the motion to recall Wang, while 7,128 voters voted against the recall. For the recall vote to be binding, 25% of eligible voters, or 81,940 individuals, would have to participate in the vote. 28% of eligible voters participated, resulting in a successful recall campaign against Wang...
The issue of ractopamine-treated pork imports continues to be a contested one in Taiwan. The Tsai administration made moves to lift limits on imports of pork treated with ractopamine from the US in September, with the aim of securing a bilateral trade agreement between Taiwan and the US...
Taiwan recorded another two cases of domestic transmission of COVID-19 earlier this week, after a doctor and his partner, a nurse who works at the same hospital in northern Taiwan, were both confirmed as infected with COVID-19...