Taiwan's Covid outbreak expands to five counties and cities on Wednesday
Taiwan’s Covid outbreak has expanded significantly to reach a record 16 local cases on Wednesday, May 12 after it saw seven local cases on Tuesday, May 11.
These seven cases included five in Yilan County for which the source of origin is unknown. Wednesday’s cases, which were a daily record for Taiwan, included three from the Yilan cluster and 10 from New Taipei City, as well as two from Taipei and one from Keelung.
This means this outbreak has spread to five municipalities and counties so far, including Taoyuan where the original pilot cluster occurred. The health minister has said a partial-lockdown could be ordered within the next few days.
Taiwan will quarantine all China Airlines pilots after a Covid cluster spread by pilots has increased to at least 36 cases including pilots, flight attendant, hotel staff and relatives.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison accidentally endorsed China’s position towards Taiwan during a radio interview.
TSMC has over 90 percent of its manufacturing within Taiwan, which needs to change, argues Tim Culpan in Bloomberg Opinion.
Taiwan was not invited to the WHO’s World Health Assembly this year despite lobbying from its allies and the US.
The Taiwan stock market sank by 4.5 percent on Wednesday, May 12, due to fears over the ongoing Covid local outbreak, having already fallen by almost four percent the day before. TAIEX sank by as much as over 8.6 percent on Wednesday morning before climbing.
Taiwan’s drought is worsening with Sun Moon Lake becoming a dried-out crater and many reservoirs dropping below 5 percent capacity, as reported by the Guardian.
The sad case of the 7-year-old who was left in a brain-dead state after being thrown 27 times by his judo instructor is a striking example of a culture of abuse of children by Taiwan teachers, as reported by the BBC.
While the pangolin is becoming heavily endangered around the world, in Taiwan numbers are actually increasing, as reported by the Taipei Times.