The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday warned of a large-scale flu epidemic, including swine flu, taking place in the next two weeks.
The regular flu season usually begins at the end of October and ends sometime after the Lunar New Year, but CDC spokesman Lin Ting (林頂) said the CDC was expecting an early start to the flu season this year because of swine flu.
“At the moment, we have more than 9,000 flu cases every week and we expect to have an additional 10,000 flu patients, including cases of swine flu, in the coming weeks,” Lin said, urging the public to stay alert during the potential epidemic.
Lin said the CDC was confident ahead of the fight against the epidemic, adding that it had 10 million doses of flu vaccine ready to use and that an additional 5 million vaccine doses for swine flu were on the way, with the manufacturer promising that there would be at least 3.5 million doses ready by the end of December.
In a related development, summer classes at 14 schools in Taipei City have been forced to close temporarily because of suspected cases of swine flu and it was likely that more schools would be affected.
A meeting on Friday between the Department of Health and Taipei City Government’s Department of Education reached a consensus on continuing to follow the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for class closures, despite concerns that the rigid guidelines could result in a greater number of class closures when the new semester begins on Sept. 1.
Education Department Chief Secretary Lin Hsin-yao (林信耀) said the department would discuss closure guidelines with individual municipal schools and make changes if necessary.
The Ministry of Education’s closure guidelines state that an entire class should be suspended for five days if two or more cases that are suspected to be swine flu occur in the class within the space of three days.
Several school principals, such as Wang Deng-fang (王登方) of Cheng Kung High School and Lee Shih-wen (李世文) of Hoping High School, have expressed concerns about the guidelines, saying it would be difficult for teachers to make up for missed lessons.
“There would be large-scale class closures at schools if an epidemic happened and it would affect the quality of education,” Lee said.
Lin said the department was planning to establish an online study database for students to continue their studies if their classes are suspended.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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