More restrictions on China travel needed, premier says

Trying to halt the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the Cabinet is considering a ban on travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Special permission would be needed to travel to the three areas, and by travellers from these areas wishing to enter Taiwan.

Any person entering Taiwan from these points of origin would be required to remain in quarantine for a 10- to 14-day period.

"As exchanges with China, Hong Kong and Macau are frequent, I'm afraid that the situation is not on our side if we don't hammer out stricter measures to more effectively control the spread of the epidemic," Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday afternoon.

About 4,000 travelers enter from China, Hong Kong and Macau daily. Prior to the SARS epidemic travellers from the three regions numbered about 10,000 a day.

Yu said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council are looking for a venue where the government can isolate and observe incoming travelers from those areas.

Yu made the remark at the Department of Health's Center for Disease Control (疾病管制局) yesterday afternoon, two days after the Cabinet approved a ban on travelers from China's Guangdong Province, Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia and Beijing, given the deteriorating situation in those places.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed Beijing, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi as severely SARS-affected areas.

According to the WHO's latest update, released Friday, China has a cumulative number of probable SARS cases reported at 2,601, with the cumulative number of deaths at 115.

A cumulative total of 4,649 cases and 274 deaths have been reported from 26 countries.

"We're facing an invisible enemy," Yu said. "We'd rather adopt stricter tactics than risk the lives of the 23 million Taiwanese people by using lax measures."

Yu said that the Cabinet will help government agencies pay for the expenses incurred in their SARS prevention programs.

"We're thinking of redirecting funds from other parts of this year's annual budget to pay for the expenses," Lin said. "We'll use the Cabinet's second supplementary fund, if necessary. If it's still not enough, we'll make a special budget request from the legislature."

Amid calls for the issuance of an emergency decree to avoid a national crisis, Cabinet Spokesman Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday said that it is still too early to adopt such a dramatic measure.

"The situation is not bad enough for an emergency decree," Lin said. "Such an announcement would only make things worse and cause unnecessary panic."

The nation saw its last declaration of a state of emergency on Sept. 25, 1999, four days after a devastating earthquake which killed more than 2,400 people and destroyed or damaged more than 80,000 homes.

Since constitutional amendments were made in 1991, the president, with the consensus of the Executive Yuan, may issue an emergency decree as a measure to prevent a national crisis. After the declaration of such a decree, the president has to seek confirmation by the legislature within 10 days. The term of the emergency decree is six months.