CECC reports 76 new local cases and five deaths
CECC reports 76 new local cases and five deathsPREVENTING WASTE: People over the age of 18 can register to receive leftover vaccine doses that would otherwise be thrown away, the CECC saidBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 76 new local COVID-19 cases and five deaths. A worker disinfects Taipei’s Huannan Market yesterday. The CECC has not found a correlation between the deaths and the vaccine, it added. A truck driver shows a negative COVID-19 test result before being allowed to enter Taipei First Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market yesterday. Those eligible for the vaccinations would be required to register at designated clinics and hospitals, which would notify them whenever leftover COVID-19 vaccine doses are available, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
COVID-19: More than 10,000 furloughed: ministry
COVID-19: More than 10,000 furloughed: ministryStaff writer, with CNAThe number of furloughed workers amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert increased by more than 3,800 over the past week, bringing the total to 10,229, Ministry of Labor data showed on Thursday. The number of furloughed workers in the lodging, and food and beverage sector rose to 2,864 from 972 on Wednesday last week, the data showed. One-hundred-and-five additional companies in the sector furloughed workers, bringing the total to 175, it showed. The number of furloughed workers in the retail and wholesale sector rose to 1,559 from 944, the data showed. The data on furloughed workers cover only unpaid leave plans that larger companies are required to report to the ministry.
Source:Taipei Times
June 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
Rakuten waives non-competition clause with IBF
Rakuten waives non-competition clause with IBFBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterIBF Financial Holdings Co (國票金控) on Thursday said that its Japanese joint-venture partner has agreed to waive a non-competition clause, paving the way for the company to invest in a commercial bank in Taiwan. The partner is Japan-based e-commerce company Rakuten Group Inc, which, through its wholly owned subsidiaries Rakuten Bank and Rakuten Card, set up a virtual bank, Rakuten International Commercial Bank Co (樂天國際商銀), in partnership with IBF. The Tokyo-based Rakuten Bank and Rakuten Card hold a combined 51 percent stake of the Web-only bank, with paid-in capital of NT$10 billion, while IBF holds the remaining 49 percent. The entrance to a branch of Rakuten International Commercial Bank in Taipei is pictured on March 16. IBF chairman Wea Chi-lin (魏啟林) told an investors’ conference in April that acquiring a physical channel would raise the company’s efficiency, and IBF would pursue acquisitions that are good for shareholders’ equity.
Source:Taipei Times
June 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
Toshiba shareholders oust chairman in rare victory
Toshiba shareholders oust chairman in rare victoryBloombergToshiba Corp shareholders voted to oust Osamu Nagayama as board chairman in a rare triumph for activist investors seeking fundamental reform after years of scandal and allegations of mismanagement. The surprise decision on Nagayama, the 74-year-old outside director some investors opposed publicly, came after a contentious meeting with shareholders that extended for nearly three hours. A staff, left, guides shareholders attending Toshiba Corp’s annual general meeting in Tokyo yesterday. For decades, corporations like Toshiba have been run with what critics say is little regard for the interests of private shareholders. The 139-page document by three independent investigators outlined how Toshiba management allegedly worked hand in hand with public officials in an attempt to sway the outcome of last year’s AGM.
Source:Taipei Times
June 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
COVID-19: Airline crew, rail ticket rules altered
COVID-19: Airline crew, rail ticket rules alteredBy Shelley ShanThe Ministry of Transportation and Communications from Thursday next week is to enforce new COVID-19 prevention measures, including new quarantine requirements for airline cabin crew, while people are to be allowed to book train tickets 30 minutes before boarding. Airline cabin crew walk through a terminal at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Dec. 27 last year. Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei TimesThey are required to take a PCR test on the seventh day and a rapid test on the 14th day, it said. A PCR test would be administered on the fifth day, it said, adding that rapid tests would be conducted on the ninth and 14 days. Those who fail to pick up a ticket three times within one month would not be able to book tickets for one month, it said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Deaths not linked to vaccines: CECC
Ten more autopsies on people who died after receiving COVID-19 vaccinations have been performed, bringing the total completed to 26, Chuang said. Based on the autopsy results, none of the deaths appeared to have been caused by the vaccines, he added. As of yesterday, 178 people — 87 women and 91 men — have died after receiving a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, CECC data showed. As of Wednesday, 1,746,130 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in the nation, including 1,714,268 first doses and 31,862 second doses, the CECC said. The nation’s COVID-19 vaccine coverage was 7.43 percent, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
CECC reports 129 domestic COVID-19 cases, six deaths
CECC reports 129 domestic COVID-19 cases, six deathsBy Sherry Hsiao and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 129 domestic cases of COVID-19, one imported case and six deaths. As of yesterday, Taiwan had recorded 14,389 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,167 imported and 13,169 domestic cases, with 605 deaths, CECC data showed. Of the 12,958 confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded from May 11 to Tuesday, 9,288 people, or 71.7 percent, had been released from isolation, the center said. Of the cases recorded after April 20, 2,444 people, or 18.5 percent, had severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome, Lo said. More than 1,700 vaccine doses have already been administered at markets run by TAPMC, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
COVID-19: NPP downplays the role of rapid test kits sold in stores
COVID-19: NPP downplays the role of rapid test kits sold in storesBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterHaving rapid COVID-19 test kits available at stores would not effectively block community spread of the virus, as people might not report the results, the New Power Party (NPP) said yesterday. NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) hosted an online news conference after the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Saturday last week approved five rapid test kits for sale. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should collect local data to ensure that test results are as accurate as the manufacturers claim, she said. Test results can be skewed if people do not follow the instructions properly or kits were not properly stored, Chien said. “Rapid test kits for COVID-19 are not must-have household items, and test results are more useful in areas with relatively more confirmed cases,” Chien said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Cryptominers flee China as crackdown intensifies
Cryptominers flee China as crackdown intensifiesBloombergBitcoin miners are moving out of China as authorities intensify their crackdown, the heads of some of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges said. There’s big shipments.”Chao said he has seen movement by clients in Binance’s mining pool, which combines the computing power of number-crunching machines that verify cryptocurrency transactions. The hashrate, which measures the processing power used in bitcoin mining and is used as a proxy for mining activity, has also dropped by about 40 percent in the past couple of weeks, data from BTC.com showed. “It’s expensive to move rigs, but it’s not impossible.”China’s state-run Global Times reported that multiple bitcoin miners in China’s Sichuan Province were closed on Sunday as authorities intensified their crackdown. “The decline in hash is probably a short-term phenomenon and evidence of China miners coming offline,” he said in an e-mail.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
FDA criticized over its EUA standards
The Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) yesterday reported that an FDA expert panel remained largely unchanged from last year to May 6. The KMT caucus has requested transparency in the EUA process to ensure that it is not treated as a mere formality, he said. The meetings on May 6 and May 28 were convened to discuss methods of evaluating vaccine efficacy and whether immunobridging could be used in the EUA process, it said. The second meeting was called to discuss EUA standards in detail, so the scientists involved in clinical trials were not invited, it said, adding that statisticians were sought, as the topic required their expertise. Such meetings inform the agency’s decisions, but are distinct from those held to decide EUA standards, so it was willful misrepresentation by the media, the FDA said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
FSC approves two e-payment firms
FSC approves two e-payment firmsBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterPxmart (全聯) and FamilyMart Co Ltd (全家便利商店) yesterday gained Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) approval to provide electronic payment services through subsidiaries, the FSC said yesterday. Twenty-eight companies offer e-payment services in Taiwan, with 13 million users as of the end of April, FSC data showed. PxPay has 7 million members, while 13 million Taiwanese have a FamilyMart membership, it added. In related news, a MasterCard Taiwan (萬事達) survey found that more than 75 percent of respondents used mobile payment tools more often than they did before a surge of COVID-19 cases last month. Half of the respondents used the tools every day, up 30 percentage points from before the outbreak, the company said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
COVID-19: KMT increases criticism of ‘failed’ vaccine policy
COVID-19: KMT increases criticism of ‘failed’ vaccine policyBy Lin Liang-sheng and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday doubled down on its criticism of the government’s COVID-19 vaccine policy, saying it has failed to make adequate preparations for emerging variants. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang, third right, and other party members outside the Landseed Hospital in Taoyuan yesterday hold signs and donations for the hospital. Photo: Hsu Chuo-hsun, Taipei Times“We have made no preparations to administer three [COVID-19] vaccine jabs or acquire second-generation vaccines,” he said. Taiwan should pursue international COVID-19 vaccine contract manufacturing orders, purchase huge quantities of vaccines and develop second-generation vaccines domestically, Chu said. The KMT supports Taiwan developing its own COVID-19 vaccines, but their safety should be backed by international certification, or Taiwan’s biotechnology industry would be damaged if locally made vaccines turn out to be problematic, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Retail sales drop amid restricted in-person shopping
Retail sales drop amid restricted in-person shoppingBy Angelica Oung and Lisa Wang / Staff reportersRetail sales dropped 5.8 percent sequentially to NT$309.6 billion (US$11.06 billion) last month as shopping malls were hit hard by measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed on Wednesday. On an annual basis, retail sales gained 2.8 percent, the data showed. As people were advised not to go out, e-commerce sales expanded 21.6 percent to NT$24.9 billion, it showed. The downward trend in retail sales is expected to carry into this month, the ministry said, citing a survey it conducted. On a month-on-month basis, wholesale revenue declined 1.8 percent, the ministry said, adding that the downward trend would likely persist this month.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Highways & Byways: Grounded, but hopefully not for long
He got back to Taiwan without incident, and did 14 days’ home isolation. Barnes says the financial crisis of 2007-2008 taught him a lesson about the precariousness of his industry: “Travel is a luxury business. After South Africa, Barnes will again spend 14 days in home isolation. Asked if he thinks that the pandemic has permanently shifted work and travel habits, Lu shakes his head: “Not in my industry. Most of the decision-makers are pretty traditional.”Steven Crook has been writing about travel, culture and business in Taiwan since 1996.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Animal protection groups seek to block Tainan zoo from importing giraffes
Animal protection groups seek to block Tainan zoo from importing giraffesBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterRepresentatives from a coalition of animal protection groups yesterday urged the government to reject a Tainan zoo’s plans to import giraffes and other wild animals from Eswatini. Two giraffes, Pi Pi, left, and Ni Ni, are pictured in an enclosure at Wanpi World Safari Zoo in Tainan’s Syuejia District in an undated photograph. Pi Pi died suddenly, leaving Ni Ni as the only giraffe at the zoo. Chiang said that the zoo treats wild animals like “dolls” that can be replaced, adding that instead of importing more animals, it should focus on improving the welfare of the animals it already has. Giraffes have always been a mainstay at the Wanpi World Safari Zoo, Taiwan Animal Equality Association (TAEA) researcher Sera Lim (林婷憶) said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 21, 2021 15:56 UTC