[Kaohsiung News] With the 2024–2025 academic year set to begin, the Kaohsiung City Government’s Education Bureau presented its back-to-school preparedness report at the municipal administrative meeting on August 26. Mayor Chen Chi-mai instructed the Education Bureau to ensure all schools to ensure that, starting September 1, meal services run smoothly, commuting routes are safe, and construction areas on campuses are properly secured. He also emphasized the importance of implementing epidemic prevention measures to provide a safe and reassuring environment for students, faculty, and staff returning to school.
To safeguard health and campus hygiene, Chen stressed that schools must step up the elimination of mosquito breeding source before and after the start of classes, strengthen epidemic-prevention education through multiple channels, and maintain strict health monitoring and reporting mechanisms. Any suspected cases of dengue fever, enterovirus, or similar illnesses should be promptly reported to local health centers to ensure timely response.
Addressing the dengue fever cluster outbreak in Gushan District, Chen called on all departments and bureaus to mobilize fully to prevent further spread. High-risk sites within the alert zone, including schools, parks, construction sites, markets, vacant land, abandoned houses, flooded basements, and temples, must be targeted for intensive vector-control operations.
He also urged citizens to maintain clean home environments, promptly remove breeding sources, and seek medical attention and undergo rapid testing if symptoms occur. The Environmental Protection Bureau has carried out source reduction and environmental cleanup within the designated alert areas, while reminding citizens to actively cooperate with dengue prevention efforts. As schools across all levels prepare to reopen, the Education Bureau continues to oversee dengue prevention work on campuses, while the Public Works Bureau is stepping up supervision of construction site maintenance to prevent the large-scale breeding of disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Chen also highlighted improvements to the 1999 Citizen Service Hotline during disaster periods, directing the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission to refine call distribution mechanisms and adopt AI technologies such as text-based customer service and interactive voice response systems. These upgrades aim to enhance efficiency, service quality, and convenience, making the 1999 hotline more responsive to citizens’ needs.
In light of recent natural disasters affecting agricultural and livestock products, the central government has launched measures to stabilize prices. Chen instructed the city’s Price Monitoring Task Force to closely track market price and supply fluctuations, and tasked the Food Safety Task Force with stepping up inspections to ensure food safety and hygiene. In addition, Chen called for continued promotion of centralized joss paper burning while encouraging citizens to embrace the “Do Good Deeds Instead of Burning Joss Paper” policy.
The meeting also recognized six companies named among the city’s “2025 Outstanding Property Management Firms”: ChenFonWei Security Co., Ltd.; Ritz Property Management Co., Ltd.; Home Start Property Management Company; Central Security Co., Ltd.; ABV Facility Services Holding Company; and Lianan Security Co., Ltd.
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Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai attends the municipal administrative meeting to hear the Education Bureau’s report on back-to-school preparations and emphasized that campus safety and epidemic prevention measures must be implemented in tandem to ensure students and teachers can return to school with peace of mind.