Ministry statistics show that there are more than 60,000 certified nurse assistants in the nation, with an employment rate of more than 70 percent. Chou Tao-chun (周道君), an official at the ninistry’s Long-term Care Services Division, said that the demand for long-term care is expected to grow in the next 10 years, and despite advances in care technology and people’s health awareness, the existing long-term care model might at some point become overwhelmed. However, the rapidly growing number of certified nurse assistants would be enough to meet the current long-term care demand, he said. More than 60,000 certified nurse assistants were in June employed in communities and at facilities, which is about 2.1 times the number three years ago, Chou said. While some experts have suggested that nurse assistants be examined by a national-level agency, the ministry said this was unlikely to be implemented, as it might conflict with current nursing certificates and endanger the jobs of nurse assistants.

COVID-19 ruled out in quarantine deathCAUSE UNDER INVESTIGATION: The Taipei resident, a diabetic, had been quarantining at her younger brother’s home after returning on Aug. 30 from a business trip to ChinaBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterA woman under home quarantine who was found dead in Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃) on Saturday afternoon did not have COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The woman, in her 50s, was put under home quarantine after she arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport from China on Aug. 30, Kaohsiung Department of Health Director-General Huang Chih-chung (黃志中) said. Kaohsiung Department of Health Director-General Huang Chih-chung speaks to reporters in the city yesterday. Photo: Fang Chih-hsien, Taipei TimesThe woman, a healthcare professional and Taipei resident, was allowed to quarantine at her younger brother’s home, as she was able to have a separate room and bathroom, he said. The woman’s body was taken to a city funeral home morgue, where a forensic scientist yesterday morning collected specimens to test for COVID-19.

Designers fuse reality, fantasy in miniature worldsAFP, TAIPEIFrom a bucolic rural grocery shop to fictional battlefields and robot warrior bases, artisans are meticulously handcrafting miniature worlds that fuse reality and fantasy. In his youth, Cheng studied illustrations in Japan, where miniatures and dioramas have long been popular. Hikari Yang, 39, started making miniatures at a time in her life when she was feeling low. Making the miniature from scratch provides a release of the stress in their busy lives,” Yang said. One custom order Chen received from a government agency was to recreate a miniature traditional Sediq home.

KMT mulls boycotting forum over CCTV newsBy Chen Yun / Staff reporterThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is considering boycotting the annual cross-Taiwan Strait Forum unless China Central Television (CCTV) apologizes and offers an explanation for a headline suggesting that the party was “suing for peace,” a senior KMT official said yesterday. The KMT had on Tuesday announced that former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) would lead a KMT delegation to the forum, which is to open on Saturday in Xiamen, China. A senior party official said that Chiang, Wang and KMT Secretary-General Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍) would make a decision soon. The KMT would seek an apology from Li and might not send a delegation to the forum if Li does not apologize, they added. “However, if Wang wants to participate [in the forum] in his personal capacity, then the KMT could not say no,” the official said.

Vaccine acquisition plans are going smoothly: CECCSEEKING WHISTLE-BLOWERS: Minister Chen Shih-chung said people would always find ways around the rules for mask suppliers, so consumers must be alertBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterTaiwan is pursuing several avenues to acquire COVID-19 vaccines when they become available, while local development of vaccines is going smoothly, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung speaks to reporters on the sidelines of a forum at National Taiwan University in Taipei yesterday. “The local development of vaccines is going very smoothly, which looks hopeful,” Chen said, adding that it used to take a long time, even up to 10 years, to get a vaccine to market. Meanwhile, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, yesterday said that the baby of a Filipina who tested positive for COVID-19 while in quarantine in Taiwan tested negative. The woman was tested again for COVID-19 upon arrival, as Taiwan requires for everyone arriving from the Philippines, and the test was negative.

KMT calls for support of referendum on US pork‘TAKE CHARGE’: Calling the president a ‘dictator,’ former president Ma Ying-jeou said that 60 percent of Taiwanese opposed importing US pork containing ractopamineBy Chen Yun and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday began a nationwide drive to drum up support for its proposed referendum to ban imports of US meat products containing ractopamine. While attending events in Taipei and New Taipei City, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) wore a shirt featuring a pink skull and the text “no ractopamine pork” in Chinese characters. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on Saturday last week unveiled the ministry’s residue limits for US pork containing the additive, which are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 next year. Chiang said that the KMT would submit a petition for a referendum to prevent the importation of US pork as a response to Tsai’s use of an executive order to lift the ban. Out of 197 countries worldwide, 160 do not use ractopamine,” Ma said.

DISPLAY OF PATRIOTISMThis reconstructed sign in Dalin Township’s Wanguo Theater reminds moviegoers to stand during the national anthem. The movement’s cultural committee in 1953 reiterated that all movie theaters needed to play the national anthem and that all audience members needed to stand up and stand still for its entire duration. By 1954, it appears that the national anthem had become a universal practice in all movie theaters across Taiwan. “Every citizen must support their country and love their flag and national anthem,” the article quoted the GIO as saying. The GIO stood its ground, arguing that the US also requires people to stand for its national anthem before sports matches.

Defendants visit scene of 2018 killingBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterHigh Court officials and police investigators yesterday brought four defendants and a key witness to a riverside park in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) to re-enact the events leading to the murder of a Canadian citizen in 2018. Israeli-American Oren Mayer was sentenced to life in prison, while American Ewart Bent was given 12 years and six months for killing Ramgahan, and dismembering and abandoning his body on Aug. 21, 2018. Hobbie, arrested and detained in October 2018, has served his prison term and was released. A key witness in the case, a man in his 30s surnamed Chang (張), was also at the on-site review. He told investigators that he was fishing on the bank of the Sindian River (新店溪) near the area on the night of the incident.

Green energy advocacy groups suggest different pathsBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterThe Taiwan Photovoltaic Industrial Association yesterday urged the government to take stronger measures to boost green energy installations, saying that the latest restrictions imposed by the Council of Agriculture (COA) would jeopardize the nation’s green energy developments. Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei TimesThe COA in July tightened the restrictions on solar farms built on certain agricultural land and fish farms. The council called for the installation of more rooftop systems and dual-use solar/aquaculture farms to reach Taiwan’s green energy goals. Hong said that the COA “caved under public pressure” and “is thinking to small,” adding that aquaculture and rooftop systems would not provide enough green energy to meet the goal. If the new restrictions stay in place, 10GW would be the highest possible share for solar energy, he said.

The draft act defines negative heritage as sites where human rights violations had been committed, including oppression, illegal executions, labor or re-education camps, during the White Terror era. Negative heritage sites are to serve as a reminder to the government of its past actions and to guard against committing similar acts, Lin added. Maintaining them would promote transitional justice education and would be different from cultural heritage sites under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法), Lin said, adding that cultural heritage sites may also be designated as sites of historic injustice. Once a site has been approved, it — like cultural heritage sites — cannot be further developed, Lin added. Replicas of buildings that have been torn down can also be rebuilt on these sites, Lin said.

Groups back Inner Mongolia protestBy Huang Hsin-po and Jason Pan / Staff reportersAboriginal groups yesterday voiced support for the people of Inner Mongolia, saying that China is to blame for protests because it is suppressing Mongolian language and culture in the region. “The fastest way to wipe out an ethnic group is to cut them off from their mother tongue,” she said. “It forced them to identify as Han Chinese ... so I can understand what the people of Inner Mongolia are going through right now,” he said. “We want to raise awareness of this issue and to protest against this shameful policy of the Chinese regime,” he said. “As a proud father of a three-year-old daughter, I want her to speak our mother tongue freely at kindergarten,” Lim said.

China’s top memory chipmaker unable to wean off USBloombergChina’s top flash memory chipmaker sees no easy way to replace US chipmaking gear, underscoring how a further crackdown on the supply of US technology would devastate the local semiconductor industry. Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (長江存儲) gets more than 80 percent of its equipment from the US and Japan, said Zheng Jiuli (鄭久利), vice president in charge of supply chain management. “Long-term investments in innovation and R&D [research and development] have led to technological advantages” at US and Japanese suppliers, Zheng said. “This is also the reason why their products are currently in the mainstream and are difficult to replace,” Zheng added. Yangtze Memory has not set a target for domestic procurement, Zheng said, adding that it would be “unscientific” to do so.

Trade show to connect PPE firms with foreign buyersBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterMedical Taiwan, set to begin on Oct. 15 in the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 2, is to feature personal protective equipment (PPE) as COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, event organizer the Taiwan External Trade Council (TAITRA) said yesterday. The three-day event would also offer a virtual exhibition for foreign buyers who cannot make it to Taiwan due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the TAITRA added. “We will have a normal exhibition for local buyers, but for foreign buyers, who cannot come in person, we will have a virtual exhibition.”A mannequin, left, clad in personal protective equipment (PPE) is pictured yesterday in Taipei at a news conference for the annual Medical Taiwan trade show. The company’s expertise in making PPE goes back to the SARS crisis of 2003, Liao added. “We’ve obtained certifications, including CE marking certification and FDA approval, and hope to connect with international buyers at the show.”

The defense ministry had earlier issued an English-language statement on Twitter calling on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to exercise restraint and for the CCP to be a peacemaker and maintain regional stability. Office of Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence Deputy Chief Yang Ching gives a briefing at the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei last night. The Chinese exercise was closely monitored from start to finish, the defense ministry said. Deputy Minister of National Defense Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said that the consecutive incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone posed a severe threat to Taiwan’s air defenses and regional stability. PLA fighter jets are operating in the vicinity of international flight paths and could pose a threat to international civilian flights, he said.

The inspection rate of imported meat and meat products was only 4 percent. We doubt if the inspectors would be able to conduct intensive inspections as the ministry has promised with expanded imports of US meat products,” Wang said. Inspections of US meat products should not interfere with examinations of other food products, she added. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) labels meat product as “USDA Organic” only if they do not contain ractopamine, NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said. This year the Canadian government made ractopamine-free a criterion for meat products to receive a quality label, Chen said.