The Chinese Television System (CTS) News and Info channel was fined NT$1 million (US$33,625) for erroneously running multiple news tickers that were created for disaster drills by the New Taipei City Fire Department, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The channel at 7am on April 20 began broadcasting 11 different tickers, saying that New Taipei City was being attacked by Chinese guided missiles and several natural disasters were happening in the city, the commission said.
The channel’s news program at 9am also ran three news tickers announcing a volcanic eruption on Taipei’s Datunshan (大屯山), a hailstorm in the capital
The death of a two-year-old boy nicknamed En En (恩恩), who died of COVID-19-related septic shock and brainstem encephalitis on April 19 six days after first showing symptoms of the virus, has sparked controversy.
The boy’s parents had repeatedly called the public health center in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和), but the calls were not answered. After they called the New Taipei City Fire Department, they were told that they needed approval from the health center and called 119 four times before an ambulance was dispatched, taking 81 minutes to arrive.
To uncover the facts and prevent a similar tragedy from
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said its “1922” hotline does not have the authority to dispatch ambulances or disease prevention vehicles, after the father of a two-year-old who died of COVID-19 said the hotline took too long to respond to his call for help.
The two-year-old boy, nicknamed En En (恩恩), began showing symptoms on April 13, was diagnosed with COVID-19 and admitted to an intensive care unit the next evening. He died of septic shock and brainstem encephalitis induced by COVID-19 on April 19.
He was the nation’s first case of a child dying from COVID-19 complications.
His father
The father of a two-year-old boy who died from COVID-19 complications last month expressed frustration on Thursday after the New Taipei City Government refused to provide an audio file of the call he and his wife made to request an ambulance.
Speaking to reporters outside city hall in Banciao District (板橋), the father, surnamed Lin (林), said that he was given a verbatim transcript and told he could only listen to the audio onsite.
The city told him this was because the recordings have the voices of fire department personnel, which are protected under the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), Lin said.
He
/ Staff writer, with CNAThe father of a two-year-old boy who last month died of COVID-19 yesterday asked why it took more than an hour to find an ambulance to take his son to a hospital, saying the delay led to his son’s death.