Coronavirus News | Office of Global Mandarin Education

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread across the globe, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced on April 2 that beginning April 3, all inbound travelers who have had a fever or respiratory symptoms in the past 14 days will be required to have their specimens collected for COVID-19 testing at the airport or hospital, and take designated transport vehicles to a designated location for home quarantine as instructed. The new measure aims to ensure the safety of the entire nation. (Data source:Taiwan Centers for Disease Control)

TAIPEI (CNA) — All members of the public must wear masks on trains and inter-city buses from April 1, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said Tuesday. The move to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus is crucial, particularly in anticipation of the traffic surge around the April 2-5 Tomb Sweeping Festival, Lin said after an inspection of the country’s high speed rail and regular rail services. In addition, the ministry said, all 12 high speed railway stations, 239 Taiwan Railways Administration stations, 1,298 post offices, as well as airports, ports, freeway service areas and bus transfer stations will check passengers’ temperatures. In cases where a forehead infrared thermometer detects a temperature of 37.5 degrees Celsius or an ear thermometer registers 38 degrees or over, the person’s temperature will be checked a second time and they will not be permitted to enter the venue if the reading remains at that level, Lin said. (Data source : The China Post)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — To prevent transmission clusters of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has introduced a set of social distancing guidelines for people to follow. At Tuesday's (March 31) daily press conference on the country's latest COVID-19 cases, Health Minister and CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) encouraged all individuals to follow the recommendations and maintain a social distance of 1.5m indoors and 1m outdoors. He said that the authorities will finalize the guidelines before announcing them on Wednesday (April 1). Chen pointed out that people should sit or queue 1m apart from others and avoid dining with friends or coworkers. For areas that are impossible to implement social distancing, such as trains or Metro Rapid Transit (MRT) stations, people must wear masks, he added. The health minister noted that the government is hoping to treat the guidelines as advice rather than as rules during the initial stages. He urged everyone to comply with the new policy, but he explained that individuals will not be fined unless they intentionally challenge the guidelines, reported the Liberty Times. With the upcoming Tomb Sweeping holidays, Chen admitted that there will be a higher risk for coronavirus transmission. However, he said that all public service areas have been instructed to maintain a clean environment and provide hand sanitizers as well as cleaning stations for people to wash their hands, reported CNA. (Data source: Taiwan News)

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday announced that adults can buy 9 face masks per two weeks, up from three per week, while children are allocated 10 face masks per two weeks, effective from April 9. As the production of face masks ramps up, the restriction on the purchasing day based on your National identification card number will be lifted. People can go to the designated pharmacies whenever they want to purchase face masks without checking if the card’s last number is odd or even. The new regulation on face masks purchasing is expected to save time for the public, the center said. (Data source: The China Post)

Taiwan has recorded 298 confirmed cases as of Sunday(March 29), the 77th highest in the world. Worldwide number of infections reaches 721,338; death toll climbs to 33,956. Update: 2020-03-30 09:00 No. Country/Area Cases Deaths 1 USA 141812 2475 2 Italy 97689 10779 3 China 81447 3300 4 Spain 80110 6803 5 Germany 62095 541 6 France 40174 2606 7 Iran 38309 2640 8 UK 19522 1228 9 Switzerland 14829 300 10 Netherlands 10866 771 11 Belgium 10836 431 12 S. Korea 9583 152 13 Turkey 9217 131 14 Austria 8788 86 15 Canada 6280 65 16 Portugal 5962 119 17 Norway 4284 25 18 Brazil 4256 136 19 Israel 4247 15 20 Australia 4163 17 21 Sweden 3700 110 22 Czechia 2817 16 23 Ireland 2615 46 24 Malaysia 2470 35 25 Denmark 2395 72 26 Chile 2139 7 27 Luxembourg 1950 21 28 Ecuador 1924 58 29 Japan 1866 54 30 Poland 1862 22 31 Romania 1815 43 32 Pakistan 1597 14 33 Russia 1534 8 34 Philippines 1418 71 35 Thailand 1388 7 36 Saudi Arabia 1299 8 37 Indonesia 1285 114 38 South Africa 1280 2 39 Finland 1240 11 40 Greece 1156 39 41 India 1024 27 42 Iceland 1020 2 43 Panama 989 24 44 Dominican Republic 859 39 45 Peru 852 18 46 Mexico 848 16 47 Singapore 844 3 48 Argentina 820 20 49 Serbia 741 13 50 Slovenia 730 11 51 Croatia 713 6 52 Diamond Princess 712 10 53 Colombia 702 10 54 Estonia 679 3 55 Hong Kong 641 4 56 Qatar 634 1 57 Egypt 609 40 58 UAE 570 3 59 Iraq 547 42 60 New Zealand 514 1 61 Algeria 511 31 62 Bahrain 499 4 63 Morocco 479 26 64 Ukraine 475 10 65 Lithuania 460 7 66 Lebanon 438 10 67 Armenia 424 3 68 Hungary 408 13 69 Latvia 347 0 70 Bulgaria 346 8 71 Andorra 334 6 72 Bosnia and Herzegovina 323 6 73 Costa Rica 314 2 74 Slovakia 314 0 75 Tunisia 312 8 76 Uruguay 304 1 77 Taiwan 298 3 78 Kazakhstan 284 1 79 Moldova 263 2 80 North Macedonia 259 6 81 Jordan 259 3 82 Kuwait 255 0 83 San Marino 224 22 84 Burkina Faso 222 12 85 Cyprus 214 6 86 Albania 212 10 87 Azerbaijan 209 4 88 Vietnam 194 0 89 Réunion 183 0 90 Oman 167 0 91 Ivory Coast 165 1 92 Faeroe Islands 159 0 93 Ghana 152 5 94 Malta 151 0 95 Uzbekistan 144 2 96 Senegal 142 0 97 Cameroon 139 6 98 Cuba 139 3 99 Brunei 126 1 100 Afghanistan 120 4 101 Venezuela 119 3 102 Sri Lanka 117 1 103 Nigeria 111 1 104 Honduras 110 3 105 Palestine 109 1 106 Channel Islands 108 2 107 Mauritius 107 3 108 Guadeloupe 106 4 109 Cambodia 103 0 110 Belarus 94 0 111 Martinique 93 1 112 Georgia 91 0 113 Montenegro 85 1 114 Kyrgyzstan 84 0 115 DRC 81 8 116 Bolivia 81 1 117 Trinidad and Tobago 78 3 118 Rwanda 70 0 119 Gibraltar 65 0 120 Mayotte 63 0 121 Paraguay 59 3 122 Liechtenstein 56 0 123 Aruba 50 0 124 Bangladesh 48 5 125 Monaco 46 1 126 French Guiana 43 0 127 Kenya 42 1 128 Isle of Man 42 0 129 Madagascar 39 0 130 Macao 37 0 131 Guatemala 34 1 132 Barbados 33 0 133 Uganda 33 0 134 Jamaica 32 1 135 French Polynesia 30 0 136 Zambia 29 0 137 Togo 25 1 138 El Salvador 24 0 139 Bermuda 22 0 140 Ethiopia 21 0 141 Congo 19 0 142 Mali 18 1 143 Niger 18 1 144 Djibouti 18 0 145 Maldives 17 0 146 Guinea 16 0 147 Haiti 15 0 148 New Caledonia 15 0 149 Bahamas 14 0 150 Tanzania 14 0 151 Cayman Islands 12 1 152 Equatorial Guinea 12 0 153 Eritrea 12 0 154 Mongolia 12 0 155 Dominica 11 0 156 Namibia 11 0 157 Saint Martin 11 0 158 Greenland 10 0 159 Myanmar 10 0 160 Syria 9 1 161 Grenada 9 0 162 Saint Lucia 9 0 163 Eswatini 9 0 164 Curaçao 8 1 165 Guyana 8 1 166 Laos 8 0 167 Libya 8 0 168 Mozambique 8 0 169 Seychelles 8 0 170 Suriname 8 0 171 Angola 7 2 172 Gabon 7 1 173 Zimbabwe 7 1 174 Antigua and Barbuda 7 0 175 Cabo Verde 6 1 176 Sudan 6 1 177 Benin 6 0 178 Vatican City 6 0 179 Sint Maarten 6 0 180 Nepal 5 0 181 Fiji 5 0 182 Mauritania 5 0 183 Montserrat 5 0 184 St. Barth 5 0 185 Gambia 4 1 186 Nicaragua 4 1 187 Bhutan 4 0 188 Turks and Caicos 4 0 189 CAR 3 0 190 Chad 3 0 191 Liberia 3 0 192 Somalia 3 0 193 MS Zaandam 2 0 194 Anguilla 2 0 195 Belize 2 0 196 British Virgin Islands 2 0 197 Guinea-Bissau 2 0 198 Saint Kitts and Nevis 2 0 199 Papua New Guinea 1 0 200 St. Vincent Grenadines 1 0 201 Timor-Leste 1 0 　 Total 721,338 33,956 Source: 1. Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, 2. Tencent, 3. CNA, 4. worldometers, 5. John Hopkins University (Data Source: Taiwan News)

Earlier this month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced a new policy requiring travelers returning to Taiwan to observe a 14-day home quarantine starting March 19. If an individual has been identified as a contact of a confirmed case, such individual is subject to a 14-day period of home isolation. During the home quarantine/isolation period, the individual is to stay at home or place of lodging, and persons living with the individual are to take adequate preventive measures, including practicing good health habits and keeping at least one meter away from the individual. Furthermore, the individual is to record his/her temperature and health status correctly. Relevant agencies will contact the individual daily to ask about the individual’s health status. If the individual feels unwell, the individual shall contact the local health bureau or the care and support center for quarantined/isolated individuals set up by each county/city government and seek medical attention as instructed; the individual shall not use public transportation.The CECC reminded members of the public in home quarantine/isolation to stay within designated quarantine area and turn on their mobile phone. During the home quarantine/isolation period, the individual can ask his/her family members, persons living together or online shopping services to help deliver food, other groceries or products necessary for daily activities. If the individual lives alone, the individual can contact the care and support center for quarantined/isolated individuals set up by each county/city government. If suspected symptoms, such as cough or fever, develop, the individual shall contact the local health bureau or the care and support center for quarantined/isolated individuals of each county/city government, which will arranged medical care. If the individual seeks medical attention for other chronic diseases, the individual can consult with the doctor via video call and ask his/her family members to collect medications. The individual is to postpone non-urgent medical care, including aesthetic medicine and health checkups until the end of home quarantine/isolation.The CECC also reminded members of the public that those in violation of related measures will be fined up to NT$1 million and put in group quarantine.   (Data source:Taiwan Centers for Disease Control)