Taipei and New Taipei are set to begin PCR testing for every case of sudden
death.

After the recent deaths of vaccine recipients, the Central Epidemic Command
Center has decided to implement mandatory PCR testing on all cases of sudden
deaths during the epidemic.

This includes cases of COVID-19 which aren't reported until after the person
has passed.

CECC Deputy Director Chen Tsung-yen says that all tests will be covered by
the budget for epidemic prevention.

Chen reiterates that all high-risk cities and counties should continue to
expand community screening, and areas with a downward trend (趨勢) in cases
should work to strengthen contact tracing and the health monitoring of mild
cases.

(TT)

Hon Hai founder Terry Gou is urging the government to clarify its stance on
vaccine procurement by private entities.

Gou said he wants to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen as only then can his
foundation receive the final approval it needs to procure and distribute
COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The industry mogul (顯要人物、大亨) feels left in the dark over the process
and thinks there is disagreement within factions of the DPP about whether his
Yonglin Foundation should procure vaccines for Taiwan.

Gou is calling on the government to publicly accept his offer to procure
vaccines via Chinese and English press release.

He also suggests the government accepts his foundation's proposed contract
for vaccine donation and gives it legal approval to import BioNTech vaccines
from Germany.

In response to his comments this morning, President Tsai said she is willing
to meet with Gou and discuss moving the vaccine procurement plans forward.

Gou also promises that the wording contracts will not say that Taiwan is part
of China.

(RD)

K-pop fans are helping Taiwan fight its coronavirus outbreak.

The Hsinchu fire department says it has received one thousand sets of
isolation suits marked with (標有) the English letters SJ, standing for the
Korean pop group Super Junior.

Local fans of the group had donated the equipment in the band's name.

Suits will be sent to the Taipei, New Taipei, and Miaoli fire departments as
well.

The fans say they took funds normally used to buy birthday presents for the
band's members to pay for the PPE.

(EG)

Democrats have set their sights (給自己定下目標、志向或要求) on a $6 trillion
national investment plan.

AP correspondent Mike Gracia reports.

Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has increased its print run to
500,000 copies as residents showed support a day after police arrested five
top editors and executives on national security charges.

Police say the editors were arrested on suspicion of foreign collusion to
endanger national security, based on over 30 articles that authorities said
had called for international sanctions against China and Hong Kong

Apple Daily has pledged (保證) to readers that it will continue its
reporting, and on Thursday night invited members of the media to its printing
presses to watch its Friday edition roll off the press in a show of
commitment.

Its founder Jimmy Lai is currently serving a 20-month prison sentence on
charges of playing a part in unauthorized protests in 2019.

The paper's average daily circulation has been around 86,000 copies.

MOFA is thanking US lawmakers for reintroducing an act in support of Taiwan.

A group of U-S Congressional Representatives have reintroduced the Taiwan
Defense Act, which seeks to ensure (確保；保證) that the U-S maintains the
ability to defeat any attempted Chinese invasion of the island.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Taiwan appreciates the US' continued
effforts to promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

It adds that it will closely monitor the progress of the Act through
Congress.

(EG)

The MOL is making it easier for people to apply for labor insurance.

Starting tomorrow, the Ministry of Labor will loosen the requirements for its
"Immediate Work Plan", which offers labor insurance and epidemic prevention
allowances to eligible (具備條件的；有資格的；合格的) applicants.

The MOL says applicants must be 15 years or older, with records of labor
insurance from the past year from their application date, and will then
qualify for unlimited insurance.

Foreigners who are married to a Taiwanese national and in possession of a
residency card and work permit can also apply.

The plan will be extended to June 30th of next year, with an overall limit of
960 hours per person, and 80 hours per month.

Previous applicants can apply again for any remaining hours, and people who
are already working can still apply for previously accumulated hours.

And if the work involves high risk of exposure to COVID-19, additional
monthly allowances of up to 2000 NT can be provided, calculated for up to 80
working hours per month.

MOL officials are asking the public to first apply online, by mail, or by
fax, and if they are unable to do so, to call their nearest public employment
service agency to make an appointment.

(TT)

With Taiwan in a soft lockdown, digital tourism has shot up.

Travel agency KLOOK says since the lockdown began in May, weekly requests for
information on digital tourism has quintupled (成為五倍).

KLOOK says the most popular digital destinations are Paris, the Omotesando
boulevard in Tokyo, the capital of Butan, Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district,
and the Buddhist Erawan Shrine in Bangkok.

(EG)

From the US.....

The bipartrisan infrastructure group swells (變大，增大) to 20 senators.

AP correspondent Mike Gracia reports.

Japan is set to announce the easing of a coronavirus state of emergency in
Tokyo and six other areas this weekend, with new daily cases falling just as
the country begins making final preparations for the Olympics in just over a
month.

Japan has been struggling since late March to slow a wave of infections
propelled (推進，推動) by more contagious variants, with new daily cases
soaring above 7,000 at one point and seriously ill patients straining
hospitals in Tokyo, Osaka and other metropolitan areas.

New cases have since subsided, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected
to downgrade the emergency when it expires on Sunday.

The Prime Minister is expected to announce a final decision later Thursday. .

The Taichung City Government Health Bureau is investigating the deaths of two
elderly citizens who recently received their first dose of the Astra Zeneca
COVID-19 vaccine.

Both had experienced adverse (不利的；負面的；有害的) side effects.

A 90-year-old woman in the city's Datun District experienced a fever and
brain fog after her jab and was sent to hospital for emergency treatment.

She passed away at around 10 p.m. last night.

In the other case, the Taichung fire department received a report at around 7
a.m. this morning that an elderly man was not breathing and had no heartbeat.

He had received his first dose of the vaccine yesterday.

He was pronounced dead on site and was not sent to hospital.

The Taichung City government said it has sent relevant reports to the Centers
for Disease Control for further investigation and clarification.

(RD)

The number of workers on furlough has gone up again.

According to the Ministry of Labor's latest figures, there are now 6,383
employees on unpaid leave programs nationwide, up 1,318 compared to the week
before.

The Ministry says this is largely due to the ongoing level 3 coronavirus
warning.

The MOL says the housing and restaurant industries have been the most
affected, as have the retail (零售，零賣) and wholesale sectors.

The Ministry notes that many healthcare businesses have also seen a drop in
business as people stay at home.

(EG)

The FDA says home coronavirus testing kits may be commercially available
soon.

Two local companies had earlier applied to import the kits, which are not
produced domestically.

The Food and Drug Administration says the first shipment could arrive within
one week.

Another 10 companies have since applied for import permission as well.

In addition, a local company is also seeking authorization
(批准，准許；授權，委託) to make the home kits.

(EG)

A UNICEF report says that escalating gang violence has displaced nearly 8,500
women and children in Haiti's capital in the past two weeks.

Officials say the gangs' fight over territory in Port-au-Prince has forced
hundreds of families to abandon their burned or ransacked (洗劫；粗暴地搜翻)
homes in impoverished communities.

The U.N.'s children agency says many of them are staying in gymnasiums and
other temporary shelters that are running out of water, food and items like
blankets and clothes.

Overall, the U.N. said that nearly 14-thousand people in Port-au-Prince have
been displaced by violence in the past nine months.

A U.N. envoy says the United Nations should keep negotiating with Yemen's
Houthi rebels but also look at other options to ensure that an oil tanker
moored (（使）停泊，繫泊，繫留) off the country's coast loaded with crude oil
doesn't rupture or explode.

Martin Griffiths says the Houthis' delay in allowing a U.N. technical
assessment of the tanker, the FSO Safer, is ``frustrating.``

The Iranian-backed Houthis control Yemen's western Red Sea ports, including
Ras Issa, 6 kilometers from where the Safer tanker has been moored since the
1980s.

Experts say the oil tanker is carrying more than 1-million barrels of crude
oil, and an explosion could cause an environmental catastrophe.

Japanese officials are set to relax restrictions on spectators
(（尤指體育賽事的）觀眾) at Olympic and Paralympic venues, according to
domestic media reports.

John Matthews has more in Tokyo.

Kaohsiung City is continuing to test migrant workers for COVID-19.

The mass testing of migrant workers in Luzhu, Qianzhen, and Kaohsiung's
Nanzih Technology Industrial Park was completed at multiple quick-screening
stations on Sunday, and the city has now begun testing in the Dafa and Linhai
Industrial Parks.

Kaohsiung estimates that it will finish testing 17,132 migrant workers in a
total of 12 industrial parks by Friday.

The Kaohsiung City Government is asking migrant workers located outside these
areas to get tested at screening stations at any of the city's 23 medical
institutions.

City government officials are also requiring any company with 300 or more
migrant workers to comply with (服從；遵守；依從) several measures:

Migrant workers from different companies must be housed separately with
independent dormitory access lines, they must not share bathroom facilities,
and all shared public spaces must be closed.

Companies with more than 200 migrant workers must also continue to cooperate
with government inspections.

(TT)

Medigen has confirmed that it is in talks with some nearby countries about
the use of its vaccines.

Earlier reports had claimed that the Philippines was interested in using the
Taiwan-made vaccine if it received Emergency Use Authorization here.

Medigen says it has been been discussing this issue with a number of
Southeast Asian countries,

Given the worldwide vaccine shortage, it has spoken to a number of
governments about different ways Medigen's shot could be administered,
including waiving (放棄 (權利、要求等)) local phase 3 clinical trials or
holding joint trials.

Medigen adds that it always intended to carry out phase three trials n other
countries.

Company officials note that as long as domestic demand can be met, Medigen
would be help friendly nations in their fight against coronavirus.

(EG)

US President Joe Biden says he is not seeking conflict (衝突) with Russian
President Vladimir Putin ahead of a summit between the two leaders.

Nick Harper reports from Washington.

Colombia's president has named a new ambassador to Washington.

President Ivan Duque said that Juan Carlos Pinzon - who was defense minister
from 2011 to 2015 -- will be Colombia's ambassador to the United States,
where he is expected to begin his duties (職責) in August.

Pinzon had already been Colombia's ambassador to Washington between 2015 and
2017, when Colombia's government signed a peace deal with the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia that was backed by the U.S.

His appointment comes after more than 50 people were killed in antigovernment
protests that began on April 28th.

Brazil's government says it has documented 41 cases of COVID-19 related to
the Copa America.

It says the cases include 31 players or staffers with teams and 10 workers
who were hired for the event.

Brazil's health ministry also says all workers who tested positive are in
Brasilia.

That's where Brazil kicked off the tournament on Sunday with a 3-0 win over
Venezuela.

Brazil stepped in late as an emergency host (主辦、主持人) for the tournament
despite the country having the second-highest number of recorded deaths from
the coronavirus in the world.

Brazil's health ministry says 2,927 COVID-19 tests related to Copa America
have been conducted so far.