Flu, COVID epidemics slowing down: data

Flu, COVID epidemics slowing down: data

2024-07-16

The worst may be over for this summer’s flu and COVID season. Last week, related visits to outpatient and emergency care units dropped by more than 10%. The flu epidemic is expected to end by early August, while the COVID epidemic should end by mid-August. But a resurgence in September remains a possibility.

In related news, there were four new cases of whooping cough last week, including a month-old baby who’s still in the hospital. This brings the year’s total to 12 cases, the most seen in this period in five years. Officials warn that delaying medical care can lead to household transmission. The public is advised to maintain proper cough etiquette and to routinely receive a whooping cough booster.

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本週達疫情高峰? 疾管署最新預估:新冠.流感皆下降

2024-07-16

疾管署最新預估，新冠肺炎及流感疫情高峰已過，上周門急診就診人次皆降逾一成，預估流感8月初脫離流行期，新冠肺炎預估8月中旬脫離，但不排除9月疫情再起。

另外，上週新增4例百日咳案例，其中一例1個月男嬰還在住院，累積今年已經12例確診、3起家庭群聚，創下5年同期新高，疾管署提醒延誤就醫可能引發家庭群聚，請民眾定期施打疫苗並注意咳嗽禮節及呼吸道衛生。

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Lai quizzes meteorologists and inspects supercomputer at CWA

President Lai Ching-te visited the Central Weather Administration’s office on Tuesday. Lai chatted with forecasters and asked about the latest weather outlook. He also toured the computer room, which houses the 86th most powerful supercomputer in the world. Lai pledged to support all hardware and software needs of the weather agency, to preserve the lives and property of Taiwan’s people.

President Lai Ching-te visited the Central Weather Administration’s office for the first time since assuming office. With typhoon season underway, he couldn’t resist some questions about the weather.

Lai Ching-te
President
What’s the weather going to be like on the day of the GACC concert?

Wu Wan-hua
Central Weather Administration forecaster
For now, it seems that it will be quite nice. There will be afternoon thunderstorms, but they probably won’t affect the concert venue. So the weather will be relatively stable.

Lai Ching-te
President
Nowadays forecasts are precise enough that we can know that it won’t rain in a specific spot. Is it true that a tropical storm is on the way?

Wu Wan-hua
Central Weather Administration
Over the next half month, a tropical system will indeed be developing in the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea. As to how this system will affect our weather, that will depend on atmospheric changes, which we will continue to monitor.

Lai also paid a visit to the heart of the Central Weather Administration – the computer room, which houses one of the world’s 100 most powerful computers.

Staff
Central Weather Administration
It currently ranks No. 86 in the world. Its power is equivalent to 46,000 personal computers, high-end personal computers.

The CWA is also collaborating with Nvidia, using artificial intelligence to enhance the accuracy of forecasts. In a video, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang personally explained the technology.

Jensen Huang
Nvidia CEO
CorrDiff AI does this 1,000 times faster. Here in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration is using these models to forecast typhoon landfalls with more precision.

Lai Ching-te
President
The more accurate the work at the CWA, the closer to perfection our decisions will be in the government. For the sake of protecting our people’s lives and property, the government will fully support all equipment upgrades at the CWA.

Lai stressed that technology was key, especially when facing the challenges posed by climate change.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

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Military sounds alarm on deepfakes ahead of Han Kuang exercises

Taiwan is on alert against deepfakes ahead of the annual Han Kuang exercises. At a press conference, military spokesperson Sun Li-fang warned that disinformation tends to surge around the time of the war games. Advanced technology can make what’s called deepfake videos, which show real people saying or doing things they never said or did. Deepfakes can be used in warfare to manipulate enemies and affect public morale, experts say.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells his soldiers to surrender to Russia. His face is stiff, with a voice and lip movements that aren’t quite natural. The video is a so-called deepfake.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
It can affect public morale. It can be used as a form of intelligence, to manipulate the enemy’s interpretation of the facts and produce false information.

Deepfakes have targeted U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as Taiwan’s top officials.

Before the 2024 election, deepfakes appeared featuring then-Vice President Lai Ching-te and President Tsai Ing-wen promoting cryptocurrency. With advances in deepfake technology and rising tensions across the strait, cognitive warfare through fake media will only get worse. One expert says that digital watermarks and attention to detail can help one distinguish real from fake.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
There are sometimes built-in watermarks that can be used to verify authenticity. Secondly, for videos without watermarks, look at the fine details. In today’s deepfake videos, many of the subtle details are glossed over.

According to the defense ministry, disinformation is especially rampant around the time of the Han Kuang war games.

Sun Li-fang
Defense ministry spokesperson
Around the time of the Han Kuang exercises, we tend to see more false information in circulation. But due to our efforts to combat false information over the years, we’ve been able to reduce its spread and its public impact in the country.

As warfare adopts new technologies, Taiwan is bolstering its defenses against China’s latest tactics.

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Kinmen organic farm gives visitors a chance to bottle bitter melons

The phrase “Food and Farming Education” refers to experiences that help people understand how food gets onto our plates. Well, in Kinmen, one small organic farm is really living up to the saying. Their latest offer for visitors is a chance to bottle bitter melons. Bitter melon in a liquor bottle is a traditional sight in Kinmen homes. But many visitors can’t imagine how it’s done. Now they can try their hand at it, and also taste an unusual bitter melon dish before going home.

A green bitter melon in a bottle. This Kinmen couple run an organic farm, and have just launched a new bitter melon bottling offer. Under the guidance of the farmers, visitors can experience putting a baby bitter melon in a bottle.

The farm owner demonstrates first. The bitter melon has to grow up inside the bottle from its first days. It looks simple, but it’s hard to do in practice. You have to watch out for the exact position of the melon in the bottle, and the string that it’s tied on also needs to be just the right length, otherwise the melon might not grow well. After the bottling is finished, the mature bitter melon can be seen flourishing about two weeks later.

Member of public
I just realized that it’s actually very detailed work. You need to put it in the kaoliang liquor bottle when it’s still very small. And then you tie it up, so that was quite a surprise.

The farmer says that many Kinmen residents have bitter melon liquor at home. Visitors wonder how such a big melon gets inside the bottle. The farm grows organic produce, and right now is better melon season. So they decided to offer this bottling experience as a form of education as well as a fun leisure activity.

Hung Chen-chu
Organic farmer, Kinmen
We’ve always seen bottles of bitter melon liquor in homes. And it so happens that we’re an organic farm and we’ve grown organic farms for a long time, so we thought, “Can we combine our farming experiences with this?” And it’s a very meaningful way to promote our work locally in Kinmen.

Apart from the classic bitter melon recipes, the farmers suggest taking the tender shoots from the bitter melon vine and flash-frying them. The dish makes a lovely feast for the visitors after their bottling exploits. It’s truly an event that lives up the slogan of “food and farming education.”

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

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Grocery stores offer a taste of India in Taiwan

Today we take you to meet Rakesh Madanlal Bohra. He first came to Taiwan in 1990 to start a computer company with his brother. Later, he and his brother opened an Indian grocery store in 1994, selling all kinds of delicacies and products from back home. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to Bohra to learn more about his career.

Indian spices, masalas, snacks, and more Indian products are on display. Rakesh Madanlal Bohra and his brother moved to Taiwan in 1990 to start a computer company. While working at the computer company, he discovered a growing demand from his Indian clients for Indian and vegetarian food.

Rakesh Madanlal Bohra
CEO
We found difficult that clients used to ask for vegetarian food because most of the Indian clientele is vegetarian. To support them we started having one of the rooms actually in our computer business for Indian food products. This is how our journey started for Indian food products. Over the years, we found that more and more Indian people stated coming to our store and asking for more and more products. We started with a journey of probably a few products. Maybe 10 products. Today, we have almost 700 products in our range to support totally all Indians.

To serve the growing population of Indians visiting and residing in Taiwan, Bohra opened an Indian grocery store in 1994. This July, he opened his fourth store. Bohra says that over the years, he has witnessed a boom of Indian restaurants opening up in Taiwan.

Rakesh Madanlal Bohra
CEO
We came here probably in the early 90s, there was only one Indian restaurant in Taiwan. Just because we started bring in the masalas, the spices and the masalas which is basically a combination of vairous spices. We found that many restaurants thought that using the masala they can start their restaurant business. Today, we have more than 100 Indian restaurants in Taiwan. It is just because of the reason that we started bringing masalas. It helped them to start their business. Since there is collaboration between India and Taiwan, they are thinking of bringing in a lot of Indians. Whether it is skilled labor or unskilled labor. We are thinking it is our responsibility to start more and more stores and support them.

Today, the stores are also very popular among Taiwanese customers. Despite the success of this business, Bohra says there have been plenty of challenges.

Rakesh Madanlal Bohra
CEO
Every time Taiwan FDA. Whenever we import food products, many of our food gets rejected. We are discussing with the Indian counterparts telling them that let’s get those products that comply with Taiwan FDA regulations. This is one of the areas where we lose a lot of money actually. This is the biggest challenge but we are trying our best to get the best of the products which are in compliance with the Taiwan FDA as well as can help Indian people over here.

Despite challenges, Bohra says he hopes to open up one store every year to serve Taiwanese and the growing population of India expats, to give them a taste of home.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-07-16