Centers for Disease Control (CDC) spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) yesterday said that more communication between countries and government bodies is needed when dealing with swine flu cases.
“The earlier we can notify each other, the earlier we will be able to stop the disease,” Shih told a CDC press conference yesterday, referring to the 23 passengers who were on board a flight from St Paul, Minnesota, to Tokyo last Friday in which one Chinese patient was later confirmed as contracting H1N1, or swine flu.
The CDC said that the 23 passengers transferred in Tokyo and arrived in Taiwan on Friday. Among the four passengers who did not enter Taiwan, two of them transferred to Cambodia, one flew on to Macau and the other went to Hong Kong.
Shih said the CDC notified its counterparts in Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong regarding the four passengers.
The CDC contacted 18 of the passengers on Monday night. The last one, however, was not located until yesterday morning.
“The last passenger is a foreigner. He did not check into the hotel he was planning to, so we spent quite some time finding him,” Shih said.
At 5:30pm yesterday, the CDC confirmed that all 19 passengers tested negative for swine flu.
Shih reminded the public about the CDC’s toll-free hotline, 1922, which is used for reporting suspected cases of flu or gaining useful information in fighting disease, especially swine flu. The spokesman encouraged locals to tell friends and relatives visiting from foreign countries about the hotline.
Also yesterday, a 53-year-old man with flu-like symptoms fled Taipei City Hospital’s Renai branch without completing the required tests to avoid being quarantined, the hospital said.
The man tested negative for the new H1N1 strain in the initial test, but he was required to complete two more tests to confirm he was not infected. He could face a fine of up to NT$60,000 if he refuses to follow hospital procedures, said Hsiao Sheng-huang (蕭勝煌), the medical director of the hospital.
Hsiao said the man was visiting the hospital yesterday for a regular hepatitis checkup when a doctor found that he had flu-like symptoms. Because he had recently returned from Miami, the doctor asked him to do three rounds of tests for the H1N1 virus in the fever clinic.
The man’s wife accompanied him to the hospital and was also asked to do the tests. The couple left the hospital soon after finishing the initial test because the man’s wife said they needed to run some errands before being quarantined if she or her husband tested positive, Hsiao said.
“His wife was nervous that they might need to be quarantined if they tested positive, so the couple left the hospital in the middle of the tests,” he said.
Hsiao said the hospital had alerted health authorities.
The CDC found the man later and asked him to return to the hospital to finish all the tests.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday downgraded the travel alert for Mexico from “red” to “orange” because the WHO said the severity of the H1N1 situation there had lessened.
Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria and Hong Kong were taken off the “yellow” travel alert by the Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council because they had no new confirmed reports of the virus in the last seven days. However, Thailand, Cuba and Finland have been listed as “yellow” because they have confirmed cases of the virus.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
Upon its completion next year, the new Tamkang Bridge (淡江大橋) in New Taipei City is to be an important landmark in Taiwan, alongside Taipei 101, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said today. The bridge is scheduled to be completed in December next year and open to the public in the first half of 2026, connecting New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里) districts. It is an asymmetric single-tower suspension bridge, nearly 70 stories tall, designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. The bridge aims to alleviate traffic in Tamsui and on the Guandu Bridge (關渡大橋), in addition to increasing the
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
EXERCISES: A 2022 article by a Chinese intelligence expert identified at least six People’s Liberation Army assault boats hidden inside the Hong Kong-flagged ship A Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship that had been docked at Taichung Port and which previously took part in Chinese military exercises departed from the port on Saturday, the Taiwan International Ports Corp’s Taichung branch said yesterday. The statement came in response to a post on the social media platform X by Taiwan-based journalist Chris Horton that said the ship, the SCSC Fortune, had been docked at the port since Tuesday and questioned whether Taiwan has any rules regarding foreign civilian vessels that have participated in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises. Horton referenced a 2022 article by Chinese intelligence expert Rod Lee that
PROBLEMATIC: Popular hotpot restaurant chains were among the list of restaurants that failed the inspection and have been ordered to remove bad ingredients The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of hotpot ingredients in hotpot restaurants resulted in a 16.7 percent failure rate. Eight vegetables had excessive pesticide residue and two other items had aflatoxin and excessive preservatives. As the weather is getting colder, more people eat at hotpot restaurants so a random inspection of ingredients was conducted in October to ensure food safety, the department said. Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) said 60 different ingredients were tested: 15 high-risk vegetables, 15 processed food items, 10 soy-based food items, five meat items, five lamb items, five seafood items and five peanut powder
RSS