TAIPEI—Taiwan has won global praise for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. As the world closes borders and enforces quarantines to combat the outbreak, leaders are looking to Taipei for a model to emulate—and, increasingly, for help.

On March 19, Taiwan closed its borders to nonresidents amid a second wave of imported cases among travelers returning from abroad. The self-governing island now has 379 COVID-19 cases, a number that has remained relatively low due to a series of aggressive containment, quarantine, and monitoring measures that have limited local transmission of the coronavirus.

FREDERICTON — With the COVID-19 pandemic making businesses globally reliant on online sales to survive, a Fredericton newcomer’s company has been getting a lot more inquiries these days.

Adetunji Adelakun is the founder and CEO of Scantranx, cloud-based software for retailers and wholesalers. It integrates services such as inventory management, e-commerce, point-of-sale, reports and analytics, CRM, social media, and omnichannel solutions into one platform.

The company got its start in 2015 in Nigeria, where Adelakun is originally from.

Footballers in Finland, left with no games or training due to the coronavirus restrictions, are finding new ways to tackle the impact of the epidemic.

Players and staff at AC Oulu haven’t yet faced mandatory salary cuts, but as a way to ensure the club’s wages bill is fully met each month, they’re taking on odd jobs and helping the community at the same time.

Telemedicine startup Viveo Health has raised €2 million to provide medical help via video bridge, and act as a form of ‘social distancing’. In summary, the service will help control the spread of the coronavirus in the waiting rooms of healthcare institutions.

Viveo Health, founded in 2018, began to reduce obstacles on the way to a quick diagnosis and services. Raul Källo, the founder and CEO of Viveo Health, has commented that by moving people away from crowded waiting rooms, it can reduce the spread of the virus, and people with a variety of health problems do not have to put themselves at added risk.

SparkLabs said it has invested US$40,000 in each of the eight startups that form the third cohort of its Taiwan accelerator program in exchange for up to 6% equity.

The startups are working on solutions in fields like telemedicine, commercial AI, and internet of things, among others, according to a statement.

When Jim Savage walks toward a home with a bag full of groceries in each hand, it's usually his own — but this weekend, the 60-year-old has been showing up in front of houses with a shopping cart full of supplies for strangers who can't zip around Hamilton to buy groceries as more COVID-19 cases pop up around the city.

He is one of the thousands of locals who have joined an online group to help deliver items to those who can't afford them or can't get around the city easily.

FREDERICTON – A New Brunswick-based dairy technology company will be reaching more customers across North America with a new partnership with the world’s largest provider of dairy management software.

Fredericton-based SomaDetect, a precision dairy technology company, and Valley Agricultural Software (VAS), the world’s largest provider of dairy management software, announced this that VAS’s Software API will be integrated into SomaDetect’s data system.

The integration with VAS’s API will enable SomaDetect’s software to synchronize with any​ milking equipment​ using VAS’s dairy herd management software, ​DairyComp.

On Jan.29, the U.S. Army announced the selection of 20 small business and technology firms to advance to Phase III of the xTechSearch 4.0 technology prize competition. xTechSearch is an Army-sponsored competition focused on finding technologies with both defense and commercial applications that have been developed by American technology entrepreneurs and small businesses, Signal reports.

“The 20 selected entrepreneurs and companies presented incredible capabilities and systems that we would have not otherwise seen or been able to support had it not been for Army xTechSearch,” Bruce D. Jette, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, says in the written announcement.

Opera, one of the world’s leading web browsers with a user base of more than 350 million people, has completed the acquisition of the Estonian-based company Pocosys, as well as an sign an agreement to further take over Pocopay, a sister company, which holds a payment institution license and provides financial services in the European Union.

The value of the acquisition has not been disclosed.

With these acquisitions, Tallinn will become Opera’s second European hub for fintech services, following Gothenburg, Sweden. Founded in 2015, Pocosys provides modern banking technologies to fintech companies. It has previously licensed its financial software to companies in Japan, Ghana and the UK.

Bell Canada is reaching out and touching the City of Hamilton to the tune of about $400 million, the largest digital infrastructure investment in the city's history.

The company announced Jan. 23 it will be investing the money to expand broadband internet access in urban and rural areas of Hamilton.

“I think you will be very impressed with one of our service providers,” Mayor Fred Eisenberger said recently. “It’s a pretty significant investment.”