After being sworn in yesterday, new Coast Guard Administration Director-General Chen Kuo-en (陳國恩) vowed to make every effort to prevent African swine fever from entering the nation.
While he was happy to take up the challenge, his new post came with great responsibility, and keeping out African swine fever was the most pressing issue right now, he said.
It is better to do more than less, and to make meticulous and long-term preparations to combat the disease, as such steps are essential to ensure the nation’s health and economic stability, he added.
The Coast Guard Administration would also follow President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) plan to acquire smart technology, including thermal imaging devices and vertical takeoff and landing uncrewed aerial vehicles, he said.
Since the first confirmed case of African swine fever was reported in China’s Liaoning Province in early August last year, Taiwan has been on high alert for fear that the virus could wipe out the nation’s NT$80 billion-a-year (US$2.6 billion) pig farming industry.
The Central Emergency Operation Center for African swine fever data showed that there have been 25 cases of pork products brought from abroad that tested positive for the virus so far.
Chen succeeded Lee Chung-wei (李仲威), who on Wednesday last week was appointed head of the Ocean Affairs Council.
He has an extensive background in police work, including serving as commissioner of the New Taipei City Police Department and director-general of the National Police Agency. He served as deputy head of the National Security Bureau from mid-September 2017 until last week.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching