Taipei Deputy Mayor Pai Hsiou-hsiung (白秀雄) yesterday said that it is up to prosecutors to determine whether the former superintendent of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital and the head of its Infectious Diseases Department should receive administrative punishments from the city government over the SARS outbreak at the hospital. \n"Prosecutors have control over the investigation now," Pai said. "If we need evidence or records from our own investigation, we will have to `borrow' it from them. So we have to work with them through the process." \nHe made the remarks when asked by reporters when the city government would announce if former superintendent Wu Kang-wen (吳康文) and department head Lin Jung-ti (林榮第) would face punishment. \nThe city's Bureau of Health announced on Thursday that it had suspended Dr. Chou Ching-kai (周經凱) from practicing medicine for three months because he broke the mandatory quarantine imposed on Hoping Hospital staff and that it had revoked the physician certificate of Jen Chi Hospital's superintendent Dr. Liao Cheng-hsiung (廖正雄) for concealing the SARS outbreak at his facility. \nDuring the Thursday evening press conference, however, bureau officials said Wu and Lin were still under investigation. \nPai said that, during interviews with bureau officials, Wu and Lin tried to avoid taking responsibility for the outbreak of SARS at their hospital. As a result, he said, the bureau needed more documents from the hospital before a decision could be made about the pair. \nThe bureau, however, has been told it must get permission from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office to look at the hospital's records, he said. \n"When we tried to access patients' records, the hospital's employee-log records and so on, Taipei Chief Prosecutor Chen Ta-wei (陳大偉) told us we couldn't do so without prosecutors' authorization because these items are now crucial evidence in their investigation," Pai said. "When they [the prosecutors] decide who should bear the responsibility [for the outbreak], we'll know who to blame as well."
PETITION DRIVE: A proposal to allow the use of medical cannabis has collected more than 5,000 signatures on the Public Policy Network Participation Platform Regardless of whether the government permits medical cannabis, the drug’s status as a category 2 drug would not be changed, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said on Saturday after a petition calling for medicinal cannabis to be allowed gained more signatures. A proposal on the National Development Council’s Public Policy Network Participation Platform has collected more than 5,000 signatures, exceeding the threshold needed for the proposal to be considered by the government. The public must understand that the only difference between narcotics and drugs is whether they are used in a legal manner, the ministry said. Using morphine, a category 1 narcotic, as
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: ’Ordering the businesses to suspend operations was easy, but no one wants to take the responsibility for reopening them,’ the mayor said The Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) instruction that local governments can decide whether hostess clubs and dance halls can reopen is a typical example of the central government’s unwillingness to take responsibility, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday. Ko made the remark in response to media queries on the sidelines of a blessing ceremony held at Taipei’s Sung Shan Tsu Huei Temple (松山慈惠堂) yesterday morning. The CECC on April 9 ordered all hostess clubs and dance halls to suspend operations after a case of locally transmitted COVID-19 involving a hostess in northern Taiwan was confirmed the day before. Minister of Health and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members are calling for KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to “lead the charge” by joining a possible mayoral by-election amid a bleak outlook for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in a recall vote scheduled for June 6, party sources said on Saturday. If Han of the KMT is recalled — which would trigger a mayoral by-election — it would deal a serious blow to the party, in which case a strong mayoral candidate would be needed to shield the party from further damage, a KMT legislator said on condition of anonymity. If the party’s candidate in a mayoral
Award-winning actor Anthony Wong (黃秋生), one of the few Hong Kong celebrities to publicly support the territory’s pro-democracy movement, yesterday indicated that he is preparing to become a Republic of China citizen. Wong early yesterday on Facebook said that he is in Taiwan undergoing compulsory 14-day quarantine required of all overseas arrivals as part of the government’s policy to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In a comment under the post, one Facebook user suggested that Wong become a naturalized citizen, to which Wong said that he was “making preparations,” without elaborating. The remark drew many positive responses from users of
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