The first payments of the government’s latest COVID-19 relief funding were wired into residents’ bank accounts at midnight yesterday.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday announced that the relief funding program has been approved and would benefit 7.3 million people.
Farmers and fishers would receive NT$10,000 per applicant, while self-employed or independent workers who have paid up to NT$24,000 in insurance last year would receive NT30,000, the Executive Yuan said, adding that those who have paid more insurance would receive NT$10,000.
Taxi drivers would receive up to NT$30,000, while visually impaired massage parlor employees would receive up to NT$45,000, the highest relief payment to
The board of LA Metro, which runs the buses and subways in Los Angeles County, met on Thursday to consider a radical idea: making transit free. The agency has approved a pilot program that will waive fares for K-12 and community college students this summer and for low-income riders next winter. In 2023, Metro will decide if the remaining riders get to ride free, too. That would give Los Angeles the largest free transit system in the world.
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More than two hours of public comment preceded the meeting, and most of the speakers were not fans of Metro’s incremental approach. They were against the agency asking for “a public attestation of poverty.” “Any effort to impose a means test is in fact a form of racial discrimination,” one said. Another said: “It’s an apartheid system on its face.” In short: Free transit now!
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should personally lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic so that personnel and resources can be made available quickly to those in need, New Power Party (NPP) lawmakers said in a statement yesterday.
NPP legislators Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), Claire Wang (王婉諭) and Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) issued the statement as the nation grapples with a COVID-19 outbreak caused by multiple cluster infections that occurred early last month.
Hospitals, particularly those in Taipei and New Taipei City, have said that their personnel and resources have been stretched thin due to a surge in the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
“The
COVID-19 vaccines should be available free of charge to anyone who wants to be vaccinated, the New Power Party (NPP) said yesterday, as lawmakers began negotiating details of relief fund packages proposed by the Executive Yuan.
The Cabinet has proposed an amendment 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) that would enable the government to implement the act until June 30 next year, in view of the economic repercussions that Taiwan has experienced amid a COVID-19 outbreak.
It proposed raising the budget cap to NT$630 billion (US$22.64 billion).
The NPP said that while
COVID-19: NPP slams military’s disease prevention measures
By Hsieh Chun-ling
and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) on Sunday accused the military of having inadequate disease prevention measures, a day after the military confirmed its first case.
Military dining facilities had shared-use utensils, and tables were separated by dividers that were too low, she said, adding that bunks in the sleeping quarters were separated with plastic bags or kitchen-grade plastic wrap.
“Will the military be ready when draftees report for duty on Monday?” she asked.
Those who had been in close contact with the infected officer have so far tested negative for COVID-19, but authorities are still investigating whether the officer was on the base while he was contagious, Wang said.