China implemented drastic quarantine measures yesterday to contain the SARS epidemic after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against travel to three new locations including Beijing, where scenes of panic erupted.
After covering up severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks for months, China's state-run media began rallying the nation against what it called a "savage attack against mankind."
The backtracking came as the global death toll from SARS rose to 261 after eight new deaths in Hong Kong and China, and the World Bank warned the epidemic was damaging Asia's economy.
The WHO Wednesday added Beijing, the Chinese province of Shanxi and the Canadian city of Toronto to an earlier travel advisory on Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, sparking an angry reaction from Toronto and widespread anxiety in Beijing.
Shoppers besieged supermarkets in the Chinese capital, which has reported 39 SARS deaths and nearly 800 confirmed cases and the airport and train stations were packed with people fleeing the city.
"Beijing has become very dangerous. It's become too serious now. Me and my friends are leaving," said Korean student Song Seungki, one of many foreigners queuing for flights at Beijing airport.
Supermarkets reported a roaring trade in staples such as rice and cooking oil as rumors swirled the city would be isolated, while many other shops simply closed up as scared residents stayed at home.
The Beijing government said anybody suspected of having SARS and any area where the virus had been found would be isolated. Anybody who violated the order would be "severely punished."
The first victims were the city's prisons, where employees have been banned from leaving and family visits have been stopped. China's national library was shut while one of Beijing's biggest hospitals stopped admitting patients.
Meanwhile the WHO raised fears that SARS may have gained a toehold in the eastern city of Shanghai, which has a population of 16 million and has until now reported just two cases.
"Our team in China has clearly indicated that they feel there are probably more cases in Shanghai than have been reported," said David Heymann, WHO executive director of communicable diseases.
Canadian officials reacted with fury to the travel advisory and demanded the UN body send a team to investigate Toronto, where most of the 16 deaths and 330 SARS cases in Canada have been recorded.
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
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
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,
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
RSS