Three more people have tested positive for the (A)H1N1 flu virus, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, bringing Taiwan’s total number of confirmed cases to six.
A 30-year-old woman who was in Manila from last Saturday to Wednesday had tested positive for A(H1N1) influenza, the CDC told a press conference yesterday afternoon. Test results released last night showed her daughter had also tested positive for (A)H1N1.
“She [the woman] felt unwell while in Manila and went to a clinic on Thursday after she developed a fever. Her daughter was also screened after she developed a fever,” CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said.
The girl’s school, Guangfu Elementary School in Chungho (中和), Taipei County, will be shut until Friday. All staff and students will be required to take medication, Shih said.
He said the woman did not have a fever when she returned to Taiwan on Wednesday, so was not stopped at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Later that day the woman visited a friend and had dinner there with six other people, Shih said. All six have been advised to take medication, he said.
The other new case announced yesterday was a female student, the sister of a woman the CDC confirmed as being infected late on Thursday.
The two sisters returned from San Francisco on Thursday on an EVA Airways flight.
The nation’s second confirmed case involved a Taiwanese female also studying in the US. She returned to Taiwan from New York via Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Taiwan’s first confirmed case was an Australian doctor who arrived by plane from New York via Hong Kong on Monday. He is expected to be discharged as early as tonight, the CDC said.
The infections among the students yesterday prompted the Ministry of Education to suspend a school trip it had sponsored to Japan.
It also advised students against visiting countries with high levels of (A)H1N1 infection.
The ministry also urged students overseas with flu symptoms to seek immediate treatment.
In related news, the local travel industry is worried that the swine flu outbreak will dampen interest in traveling abroad this summer with travel agents already offering large discounts to help stimulate demand.
Ting Lai (丁萊), CEO of the 2009 Taipei International Tourism Exposition, said prices for trips abroad this summer would be slashed because of the flu outbreak.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
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SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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