As #WHA is scheduled to begin later today in Geneva, #Taiwan has once again not been invited to attend the assembly for @WHO. #Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision.
Chen said the resurgence of #COVID19 outbreak in #Taiwan reflects that there shouldn't be a loophole in the global fight against the pandemic and the world needs to share all the information and expertise to deal with the outbreak.
Wu said #China's claim that it has helped #Taiwan to participate in the @WHO is contradictory to the reality, and it is also against Taiwanese people's will.
Amid its worst #COVDI19 outbreak, #Taiwan continues to witness a surge of relevant disinformation. During the daily presser at 9:30, the CECC pointed out that there has been rumors like "dead bodies of #COVID19 patients were dumped in rivers" ...cna.com.tw/news/firstnews…
... as well as "chat history from doctors show that the government is faking #COVDI19 data" circulating across #Taiwan. Health officials said they have found several online contents containing languages typically used in #China and simplified characters.
The content includes the two examples highlighted above and police investigation showed that these rumors originate from foreign IP addresses.
Exclusive from @WSJ: A previously undisclosed US intelligence report revealed that three staff from #China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care. This happened right before #COVID19 was reported. wsj.com/articles/intel…
The details of the reporting go beyond a State Department fact sheet, issued during the final days of the Trump administration, which said that several researchers at the lab, a center for the study of coronaviruses and other pathogens, ...
... became sick in autumn 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.”
A @Ryanair flight to Lithuania was forced to land in Belarus and local authorities arrested journalist Roman Protasevich who was on board the flight. The journalist was critical of Belarusian President Lukashenko. dw.com/en/belarus-div…
Opposition figures swiftly criticized the move, which they said was a bid by the government of longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko to clamp down on critical voices.
Lithuania has demanded that NATO and the European Union act to resolve the situation, calling it a "threat to international civil aviation."
Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Shih-Chong said the key indicators to consider whether to lower the #COVID19 alert level in #Taiwan is: the rate of positive test results, the changes in the number of confirmed cases and the overall trend of the spread of new confirmed cases.
Health authorities said after Taipei and New Taipei City, the two epicenters of the outbreak, raised their alert level to level three on May 15, the number of local cases remains roughly the same. cna.com.tw/news/firstnews…
After citizens reduce the opportunities to interact with one another, the chain of infection could hopefully be broken off. However, since the #COVID19 virus has roughly a 5 to 7 day window to start showing symptoms, the number of cases is supposed to drop after 7 days.
Taipei Mayor @KP_Taipei announced that starting tomorrow, May 24, Taipei will ban all indoor dining at restaurants and drink shops, this will include breakfast places, department store's food courts and all kinds of places that used to offer indoor dining. cna.com.tw/news/firstnews…
Ko said based on the rate of positive test results from the last few days, the slight uptick to 8.47% shows that the outbreak hasn't really slowed down and there is still certain level of community spread in the epicenter of Wanhua District or even within Taipei itself.
Ko said which is why he is ordering such blanketed and strict regulations as part of the automatic lockdown that many citizens have practiced since last week.