The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday warned people planning to visit Hong Kong to be alert to the dangers of catching atypical pneumonia there, as a hospital in Taiwan treated a couple suspected of contracting the potentially deadly disease in Guangdong Province.
Chen Tzai-chin (
Chen said the couple's condition could not be confirmed until tests are completed on Monday.
PHOTO: AP
Chen declined to identify the couple, saying only that the businessman suffered symptoms similar to those of atypical pneumonia after coming back from Guangdong, and his wife's symptoms appeared after she began taking care of her husband.
Earlier yesterday council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (
"We are hopeful that local citizens intending to travel to Hong Kong can steer clear of crowded and poorly ventilated public places and maintain vigilance regarding their own health and safety," Chen said, adding that officials will continue monitoring developments in the health situation in Hong Kong.
PHOTO: AFP
As many Taiwanese people often make pleasure trips to or transit stops in Hong Kong, staff members at CKS airport have stepped up a publicity campaign to remind Hong Kong-bound travelers of the new health hazard.
They distributed flyers and put up posters to inform outbound visitors of the atypical pneumonia alert.
The Department of Health issued a similar warning Thursday.
Taiwanese travelers who develop symptoms of pneumonia or flu after visiting Hong Kong or Vietnam should see a doctor immediately and list the places they have toured to facilitate diagnosis of their disease, the DOH said in a press release.
Many diseases, such as epidemic influenza and legionnaire's disease, can display symptoms of atypical pneumonia and should be treated carefully, the DOH press release said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS