Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwan has been lauded worldwide for its rapid response to COVID-19 but as it battens down the hatches amid a sudden new outbreak of the disease a big weakness has emerged from an unexpected corner: its workplace culture.
As Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center raised the alert to “Level 3” in Taipei and New Taipei City, home to almost a third of Taiwan’s population, over the weekend they imposed new restrictions on the size of gatherings and made face masks obligatory in public. They also urged employers to allow people to work from home.
Streets were empty over the weekend as residents hunkered down at home. But come Monday it seemed everyone was heading to work even though the outbreak was emerging as the most serious one to hit the island since December 2019.
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Level 3 COVID-19 alert introduced across Taiwan
05/19/2021 02:33 PM
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People wait outside Tucheng Hospital in New Taipei for a COVID-19 test on Wednesday. CNA photo May 19, 2021
Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Taiwan s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday raised the COVID-19 alert to Level 3 nationwide after the country recorded over 100 locally-transmitted cases for the fifth consecutive day.
The alert is provisionally effective from today through May 28, the CECC said.
The nationwide alert comes after the CECC raised the COVID-19 alert for Taipei and New Taipei to Level 3 on Saturday, as the two northern cities struggled to contain a spiraling number of domestic infections.
Some Indian states face Black Fungus treatment shortage as cases in Covid-19 patients rise
From Esha Mitra in New Delhi
Several Indian states are facing a shortage of an antifungal drug used to treat Black Fungus, or Mucormycosis, a disease Indian Health officials have increasingly been detecting among patients who have recovered from Covid-19.
At least 52 people have died from Black Fungus in the state of Maharashtra, where the disease is on the rise among patients who have recovered from Covid-19, Dr Tatyarao Lahane, a senior state health official told CNN on Wednesday.
At least 2,000 cases of Black Fungus have been detected in Maharashtra, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health on Friday.