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Taipei-The New Taipei City government has decided to suspend on-site classes at two schools in the city, as a student at each of them has tested positive for COVID-19, city Mayor Hou Yu-ih (???) said Sunday.

The two students, who attend junior high and elementary school, respectively, were among the 12 new domestic COVID-19 cases reported Sunday.

At a press briefing, Hou said the two schools in Linkou District will conduct remote classes for two weeks, but some special provisions will be made if parents have no off-site arrangements for their children.

In such cases, the children will be allowed on the school premises, under the supervision of assigned teachers, and they will be able to join the remote classes, Hou said.

During the 14-day suspension of in-person classes, the classmates and teachers of the two students who tested positive will be required to remain in quarantine until Feb. 25, while all others at the schools will be tested twice during that period, he said.

Linked to Kaohsiung cluster

The two COVID-19 cases at the schools are linked to a cluster at a gravel supplier in Kaohsiung, which includes the employees’ relatives, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC). The cases in that cluster extend to contacts of the company’s employees and have spread to Tainan, Miaoli County, Hsinchu County, and New Taipei, the CECC said.

In addition to the students, five other cases linked to the cluster were reported on Sunday, bringing the total to 34, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) said at a separate press briefing.

Among the other new domestic COVID-19 cases, three are connected to a cluster at a factory in New Taipei’s Shulin District operated by Apple Inc. supplier Career Technology Co., bringing the number of infected employees there to 18, Chuang said.

One of the other cases is the wife of a man who returned to Taiwan from China on Jan. 23 and tested positive after his quarantine ended, Chuang said, adding that the couple’s two children also tested positive on Saturday.

The 12th domestic case reported Sunday is a New Taipei resident, who traveled to Kaohsiung over the Lunar New Year holiday and tested positive after developing symptoms of the disease, Chuang said, adding that the source of that infection is still under investigation.

In eight of the 12 new cases, the patient had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, two people had received one dose of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech brand, and two were children under the age of 10 who had not been vaccinated, according to the CECC.

Imported cases

In addition to the domestic cases, Taiwan also reported 40 imported cases on Sunday. Fifteen were people who tested positive upon arrival in Taiwan, while the others tested positive while in quarantine, the CECC said. It did not disclose the vaccination status of the imported cases.

Also on Sunday, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (???) said in a statement that the genome sequence of the virus found in two employees at a drink shop in New Taipei were a match with the Omicron variant that was circulating in an outbreak that began at Taoyuan International Airport in early January.

The CECC is still examining how the two clusters are linked, said Lo, issuing a corrected statement after he had said earlier at the press briefing that the two drink shop cases had been linked to a cluster in the Greater Taipei area.

Health authorities are trying their best to identify the source of each cluster, but that is not always possible, he said.

The CECC is currently monitoring 10 clusters and an individual domestic case, which involve at least four different types of the Omicron variant, according to its data.

To date, Taiwan has confirmed a total of 19,567 COVID-19 cases, including 15,319 domestically transmitted infections.

With no deaths reported on Sunday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the country remained at 851.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taichung-A death note left by an Air Force serviceman before he jumped from a Taichung apartment building Sunday in an attempted suicide after allegedly killing his two young sons showed that he committed the acts after refusing to sign divorce papers for his wife, police said.

In the note, the 25-year-old suspect surnamed Hsiao (?) wrote that he had refused to sign the divorce papers and would leave the family quietly. Local media have reported that his wife surnamed Liu (?) had asked to end the marriage in December due to years of quarrels.

According to the police, Hsiao had another fight with Liu at their residence in Taichung’s Tanzi District in the early hours of Sunday.

After Liu left the apartment following the fight, Hsiao allegedly committed the double homicide before jumping from the apartment building in an attempted suicide, the police said.

Doctors were still trying to resuscitate Hsiao as of press time, who is in critical condition with bone fractures and internal bleeding in his head.

Police are now questioning Liu to clarify the case.

Hsiao was found lying unconscious on the ground as paramedics arrived after receiving a call of a man having fallen from a Taichung building at around 2:20 a.m. early Sunday, the city’s Fire Bureau said.

After rushing the injured man to a nearby hospital, local police went to the couple’s residence, located on the third floor of the building, where they discovered the couple’s two sons, aged 2 and a half and 1 and a half, showing no signs of life.

The two boys were later pronounced dead by doctors and initial forensic tests showed that the elder son had a knife wound on his throat, police said.

Police did not elaborate on how the younger son was killed.

Investigators later found a death note which they believed to have been left by Hsiao, and a knife believed to be the murder weapon used on the elder son.

Local media reports quoted Facebook posts made by Hsiao early Sunday morning around the time of the double homicide, in which he had hinted that his wife was seeing another man.

“I will set you free,” he wrote, adding that however, “I will not allow another man to take care of our children.”

Air Force Colonel Liao Po-wen (???) of the Taichung-based 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, in which Hsiao served as a mechanic with the rank of private first class, told reporters that Hsiao had told his unit that he was having marital problems but did not elaborate.

The unit had been offering consultation sessions to Hsiao in the hope of resolving his domestic issues and was recently told that his relationship with his wife had improved, Liao said.

The Air Force is deeply saddened on learning of the tragedy and was offering assistance to the family to deal with the aftermath while assisting with the investigation, Liao added.

Meanwhile, an autopsy on the two boys’ bodies is slated to be conducted Tuesday to determine the cause of their deaths.

Anyone contemplating suicide is advised to seek help immediately by calling the government-funded hotline 1925 or 1995 run by Taiwan Lifeline International (TLI). Information on suicide prevention can be found on TLI’s website: http://www.life1995.org.tw.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Kaohsiung-Taiwan-based neurosurgeon Kwan Aij-lie (???) assumed the post of world president of the International College of Surgeons (ICS) on Friday, becoming the first female leader of the Chicago-based organization since its establishment 87 years ago, according to Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU).

Kwan received a confirmation certificate of her new ICS position on Friday during a ceremony at KMU, where she works as a professor, the university said in a statement released Saturday.

With the assumption of that position, Kwan became the first female leader of the ICS and the second Taiwan-based surgeon to head the global organization, after Lee Chun-jean (???), who held the post from 2001 to 2002, according to the university.

In the statement, Kwan was quoted as saying that she would continue to help provide medical services to rural areas around the world and to advance surgical technologies.

Born in Indonesia, Kwan studied at KMU and became the first female neurosurgeon in Taiwan, the university said.

She joined the ICS over 20 years ago and became its world president-elect when the organization’s board of governors met in Kaohsiung in November 2018, according to the organization.

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Kwan has been holding online seminars and meetings for ICS members to share information and findings about the disease, and she has helped provide resources for medical workers in Indonesia, the university said.

For her contribution to promoting international medical cooperation, Kwan received a Friend of Foreign Service Medal from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in February 2021, the university said.

The ICS was founded in 1935 by Max Thorek with a mission to “foster worldwide surgical excellence through education, training, fellowship and humanitarian efforts,” according to its website.

The organization has over 4,000 members in 134 countries, the website says.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel