Shutting down schools will not be a standard measure to stop the spread of A(H1N1) influenza, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said yesterday, adding that such an option would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
On Friday night, the government ordered that Guangfu Elementary School in Jhonghe (中和), Taipei County, be closed until next Friday after one of its students tested positive for swine flu.
The student is a five-year-old girl who attends a kindergarten that is affiliated with Guangfu Elementary School. The girl returned with her mother from Manila to Taiwan on Wednesday and went to class as usual on Thursday. Both mother and daughter tested positive for swine flu.
While in the Philippine capital, both participated in an international yoga workshop, which also had participants from swine-flu affected areas such as the US and Canada.
All of the elementary school's 1,650 faculty members and students should observe their health conditions during the week-long period, Shih said.
Meanwhile, the kindergarten's 119 teachers, staff and students should confine themselves to their homes and take flu medicine for 10 days, Shih said.
One of the girl's classmates was quarantined yesterday after he showed signs of fever on Friday night. Shih said, however, that the boy might not have been infected with A(H1N1) because he began exhibiting flu symptoms before his contact with the girl on Thursday.
“The chances of the boy being infected with A(H1N1) are small. But, to play it safe, we have quarantined him and tested him,” Shih said.
Because of the growing number of cases, Shih said the center had decided to give medication to those who had direct contact with confirmed A(H1N1) patients without first conducting tests.
Meanwhile, the Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday urged the public to remove their masks and take a walk outdoors to ease their minds and improve their health.
“Three treasures in the forest — pythoncidere, negative ions and fresh oxygen — help people develop natural antibodies, soothe their mind, eliminate insomnia, headaches and anxiety, prevent respiratory diseases, and improve circulation and immunity systems,” COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said at an activity yesterday to encourage people to visit any of the nation's 18 forest recreation areas or botanical gardens.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MEGGIE LU
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS