The official said his office has checked with the USCDC and was told that Taiwan is not an area it has advised Americans against traveling to because of the SARS outbreak.
The official said the USCDC advised Americans to postpone elective or unessential travel to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi because of the flare-up of SARS there but it didn't mention Taiwan.
He contradicted the report by the New York-based Chinese language newspaper, the World Journal, which said Friday that the USCDC has issued a warning against traveling to China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Andrew Hsia (
Scant news of further SARS cases was being viewed cautiously in the rest of Asia yesterday as China, the new focus of a search for its origins, remained doggedly silent on the incidence of the disease within its borders.
A day after Chinese health authorities vowed to give "full and frank" reports on new and suspected cases of the mystery respiratory disease, official media appeared to have maintained its virtual blackout on news of the illness.
Reports from Singapore and Hong Kong, however, were more encouraging, with no new cases announced as major clean ups and screening and quarantine programs to halt the spread of SARS got underway.
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