The call came after Taoyuan recorded 29 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the city to 475. The city has the third-highest number of confirmed cases in Taiwan, following New Taipei City and Taipei. Bade District Administrator Chiu Jui-chao inspects Danan Market in Taoyuan yesterday. He also said that the number of COVID-19 screening sites in the city would be expanded from 14 to 18 — 11 at hospitals and seven in communities. The Taoyuan City Government has also urged city residents to follow a voluntary ID number-based rotation system to reduce crowding at traditional markets.

COVID-19: Furloughed worker numbers rise amid virus restrictionsStaff writer, with CNAThe number of workers placed on furlough by their employers has increased slightly in the past week amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday. Ministry data showed that 4,125 employees were on unpaid leave, an increase of 200 from Monday last week. The number of companies implementing unpaid leave programs also rose in the past week, from 414 to 445, the data showed. However, other sectors continue to be severely affected by border controls, particularly support services, transportation, warehouse services and tourism sectors, Huang said. These unpaid leave programs typically last less than three months and involve employees taking five to eight days of unpaid leave per month, the ministry said.

Space bill passes its third readingBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterTaiwan’s first space development bill on Monday passed a third reading, empowering the Ministry of Science and Technology to establish a national rocket launch site. The bill would confirm the ministry as the authority to oversee local space activities, including the establishment of a launch venue and approval of launch plans. Compensation that an owner or operator of a launch vehicle would be required to pay is capped at NT$5 billion if a launch were to cause an accident. Questions have been raised over whether the development bill is tailored for space launch services firm Taiwan Innovative Space (TiSPACE) and how it could progress so swiftly after a draft was approved by the Executive Yuan on Feb. 18. Despite some differences between drafts, they all revolved around regulations for launch vehicles, Huang said, denying that the bill is designed for TiSPACE.

They began experiencing symptoms between May 20 and Monday, said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center. The 65 backlogged cases comprised 31 males and 34 females who began showing symptoms between May 20 and Sunday, he added. Shoppers wearing face shields visit a traditional market in Taipei yesterday. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei TimesAmong the 2,849 cases aged 60 or older, 859 people, or 30.2 percent, suffered severe COVID-19 symptoms, Lo said. With the number of backlogged cases dropping to 74 yesterday, Chen said the CECC expects to clear out the remaining cases in the next two days and would no longer report backlogged figures.

Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei TimesForeign media eventually shifted their attention elsewhere, but labor activists have been determined to keep up the pressure. Photo courtesy of Students and Scholars Against Corporate MisbehaviorNeither Foxconn nor Apple responded when asked if they wished to comment on the issues Chan raises. PRESSURED WORKERSAccording to Chan, there are a number of reasons why Foxconn’s managers put so much pressure on their workers. Foxconn saves a considerable additional amount of money because there’s no requirement to enroll interns in state pension and benefits schemes. Our goal is to make the transnational electronics supply chain more transparent, and to give workers more dignity.

COVID-19: KMT tells public to take action, call for vaccines‘MOST PRESSING NEED’: The KMT urged the public to join its ‘V-Sign Movement,’ saying that the ‘V’ represents ‘vaccines, vaccination and victory over the pandemic’By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday asked people to change their Facebook profile pictures to an image with the words “Taiwan Needs Vaccines” as KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) questioned the government’s COVID-19 vaccine policy. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday. Tsai should commit to allowing all Taiwanese to receive the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge, he said. The KMT urged the public to take action, starting by changing their Facebook profile pictures to an image of black text in English and Chinese reading: “Taiwan Needs Vaccines,” on a white background. The KMT on Twitter urged people to join its “V-Sign Movement,” saying that the “V” represents “vaccines, vaccination and victory over the pandemic.”

COVID-19: Trade groups press to buy vaccinesSPECIAL TREATMENT: The trade groups asked that the government relax regulations that require vaccine deals to be made between the government and drugmakersBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterMajor trade groups yesterday called on the government to allow companies to buy COVID-19 vaccines on their own to help maintain global supply chains amid a local outbreak. A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Taipei on Friday. The trade groups also pushed for companies to have the freedom to vaccinate their employees after frontline workers and other at-risk people receive shots. Deregulation of vaccine imports would help take pressure off the government, which has had difficulty acquiring sufficient doses of vaccines, it added. “The ministry welcomes and is thankful for private companies seeking to obtain more vaccines,” the ministry said in a statement.

COVID-19: Private vaccine imports need approvalSIX APPLICATIONS: Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said the FDA received four applications and the CDC two, but none had the proper paperworkBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that six applications had been received from groups hoping to purchase and import COVID-19 vaccines. The center previously announced that Taiwan signed contracts to purchase about 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines: 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 4.76 million doses from the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX and 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. Late on Sunday evening, the center said that on Friday last week, it signed contracts with local vaccine makers Medigen Vaccine Biologics and United Biomedical for the advance purchase of 5 million doses from each. On Friday last week, the center announced the documentation that local governments and businesses need to apply for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to import COVID-19 vaccines. “They would still need to apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA, so the vaccine sources must meet the FDA’s requirements and the technical documents would need to be reviewed,” Chen said.

“A foreigner who has established a company in Taiwan, and who pays taxes to Taipei City Government, such as property taxes or license fees, is eligible to apply for help. Taipei City Government offers kindergarten subsidies that foreign children are effectively excluded from because they don’t have and cannot obtain household registration, he points out. According to Fahey, regulations in Taipei and New Taipei make it more difficult for foreign single parents and parents of non-citizen children to enroll their kids in public kindergartens. On its Web site, the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan described this reform as “a major breakthrough for long-term senior foreign residents of Taipei. It has been achieved thanks to many years of advocacy by the ECCT’s Better Living committees to grant equal treatment to legal foreign residents of Taiwan and the efforts of Taipei City Mayor Ko and officials in the Taipei City Government.”

Plum rain keeps further water restrictions at bayBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterLast weekend’s plum rain came just in time to stave off further water restrictions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. For areas under a red alert, weekly water supplies to households and businesses are on for five days and off for two. By the time this plum rain runs its course it would bring more than 100 million tonnes of water to reservoirs nationwide, it said. “We expect this plum rain to linger until Tuesday,” WRA Deputy Director-General Wang Yi-feng (王藝峰) said, citing forecasts by the Central Weather Bureau. It would take another 110mm of rainfall before the red alert is removed for counties in central Taiwan.

COVID-19: NPP calls for Tsai to take charge of COVID-19 fightBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should personally lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic so that personnel and resources can be made available quickly to those in need, New Power Party (NPP) lawmakers said in a statement yesterday. In other countries, it is the president or prime minister who fully takes charge on the front line of the battle,” they said. “President Tsai should assume command so that all personnel and resources can be quickly directed to people in need,” they added. Tsai should welcome all efforts from the private sector to overcome political obstacles to secure vaccines, which should not include those produced in China, it said. People who are inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines should be covered by the nation’s vaccine injury compensation system, regardless of whether they received vaccines purchased by the government or the private sector, it added.

COVID-19: Taipei adjusts quarantine measures to free up hospitals for those seriously illBy Cheng Ming-hsiang and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writerQuarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19 in a rapid screening test would be the “new normal,” Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday after the city adjusted its quarantine measures to free up medical facilities for COVID-19 patients with serious symptoms. The Taipei Department of Health announced a new set of triage procedures for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 at a rapid screening station. Effective immediately, anyone who is moderately to seriously ill, regardless of age, would be sent to a hospital in an ambulance, the department said. Medical staff operate a COVID-19 rapid screening station outside Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxiao branch yesterday. Quarantine hotels must accept patients with minor symptoms transferred to them by hospitals, as hospitals must focus on treating more serious cases, she added.

Taipei Exchange touts bond issueBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterTaiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), the nation’s largest lender by number of branches, yesterday issued NT$1 billion (US$36.16 million) of sustainability bonds and listed the debt on the Taipei Exchange. The Taipei Exchange, which manages the listing and trading of the bonds, said they are a combination of green and social bonds, which are used to finance projects that bring environmental and socioeconomic benefits. A sign of Taipei Exchange is pictured in Taipei on June 19, 2017. Photo: Chen Rou-chen, Taipei TimesTaiwan Cooperative Bank’s sustainability bonds have a five-year maturity and a fixed coupon rate of 0.4 percent. Other entities that have issued sustainability bonds and listed on the exchange include CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), Far Eastern New Century Corp (遠東新世紀), Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) and the Chilean government, it said.

COVID-19: Unions call for direct aid payments to employeesBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterLabor union representatives yesterday called on the government to distribute COVID-19 relief funds directly to workers. They asked the Ministry of Labor to take charge of the process, and not to go through industry associations or trade unions, as done in the past. The government has raised the nationwide COVID-19 alert to level 3, which has led to commercial districts seeing few customers even on weekends. “Most of the affected people are part-time employees working at restaurants and retailers, many of whom are now out of work. They will not necessarily retain their original employees, but instead hire new workers,” Chu added.

TBB eyes growth despite COVID-19 outbreakBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterAn increase in domestic COVID-19 infections has had little impact on Taiwan Business Bank’s (TBB, 台灣企銀) operations, it said yesterday, adding that it expects stable growth in mortgage lending this year, despite credit controls aimed at cooling the real-estate market. The bank yesterday said it expects stable growth in mortgage lending this year, despite credit controls aimed at cooling the real-estate market. Although uncertainty linked to the virus crisis lingers, business and investment sentiment is picking up, TBB spokesman Chang Yo-ming (張佑銘) said. Meanwhile, bad loans grew by NT$100 million to NT$624 million due to COVID-19 relief loans, as all banks responded to the government’s call to support troubled companies, TBB said. TBB is to step up provisions for related financing as the government yesterday expanded the relief and subsidy program.