From left, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun and Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung attend a news conference in Taipei yesterday to promote pomelos from Yunlin County’s Douliou City. Top-quality pomelos from Douliou are often in high demand ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sept. 10 this year.
Prioritize jabs for journalists, association says
HIGH RISK: Journalists are vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 as they cover the pandemic, including talking to health workers and government officials
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Reporters, photojournalists and live broadcast directors should be on the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination as they are at the frontline covering the latest developments, the Association of Taiwan Journalists said yesterday.
“Journalists work long hours in a [high-risk] environment, from covering how people are affected by the [COVID-19] pandemic to interviewing disease prevention workers and public health officials. They could easily become spreaders of COVID-19,” the association said.
Proposal to grant parents pandemic-leave subsidies
By Chen Yun and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Legislators across party lines yesterday proposed an amendment that would grant COVID-19 pandemic-related leave subsidies to parents, potentially totaling up to NT$10 billion (US$357 million).
The proposal would add a clause to the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), allowing workers who have to take unpaid leave to take care of their children who are younger than 12 or attending elementary school to apply for the subsidies.
The subsidy amount would be 60 percent of the recipients’ total insurance payouts for the previous year, estimated at NT$683 per day.