China’s health ministry confirmed yesterday the first case of swine flu involving a person infected with the virus inside the country.
In an earlier statement, the ministry had identified the patient as a 24-year-old woman in Guangdong Province who had been in close contact with a confirmed carrier of the A(H1N1) virus.
The woman works as a make-up artist at a photo studio in Guangzhou and came in contact with the confirmed case when he and his girlfriend had wedding photos taken on Monday and Tuesday, it said.
On Wednesday, she developed a headache and a fever, and after she was hospitalized, Guangzhou health officials identified her as a suspected swine flu case before confirming it.
The health ministry said the man she came into contact with was a 28-year-old Chinese-American employed at a hospital in New York, who had flown to Guangzhou on Sunday.
Two other suspected cases in Shenzhen have also been confirmed, the health ministry said.
The most recent WHO report said 15,510 people in 53 countries had been infected with the A(H1N1) virus since it was first uncovered last month. There have been 99 deaths.
Meanwhile, swine flu appears to have spread from crew to passengers on a cruise ship off Australia. The 2,000-passenger ship was diverted to a port in Queensland after the liner’s owner said up to five passengers were suspected of being infected after an outbreak among the crew. The five will be tested.
“We are being extremely cautious in our testing arrangements for anybody who presents themselves with flu-like symptoms,” P&O Cruises spokeswoman Ann Sherry told reporters.
The Pacific Dawn cut short a voyage on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef after three crew members were confirmed on Thursday to have the virus. P&O said all three had been aboard the same ship on a South Pacific cruise last week in which dozens of passengers were infected.
The cruise began in Sydney on Monday with the passengers unaware that scores of passengers from the previous cruise who had disembarked that day had flu symptoms.
In Sydney, a New Zealand couple who caught swine flu on the previous cruise were evicted from a hotel after their infections were confirmed.
Health authorities had told passengers from outside Sydney to isolate themselves in hotels for a week rather than travel home and risk infecting others. But Sydney hotels now fear their presence is harming business.
“We’re not expected to house people who subsequently show that they’ve got the disease and we’re not expected to be hospitals,” Australian Hotels Association chief executive Bill Healey told reporters.
The couple left with masked health officials, who relocated them.
And in Britain, officials at Eton say they have canceled classes for a week at the prestigious private school after a 13-year-old student tested positive for swine flu.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS