The Taipei City Government yesterday ordered police to arrest two medical staff members of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital who were still evading the compulsory 14-day quarantine for all the hospital's staff.
The quarantine was imposed as a result of a number of cases of suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurring at the hospital.
Chou Ching-kai (
The Taipei City Government on Tuesday night issued an ultimatum to four of the hospital's staff, making their names public before police took action to arrest them.
Among the four, Hsieh Yi-chun (
The hospital was forced to shut down on April 24 when it started a mass quarantine of all 930 staff members, 240 patients and visitors.
Taipei City Spokesperson Wu Yu-sheng (
According to the Communicable Disease Prevention Law (
Chiou Shu-ti (
As well as legal action to arrest the uncooperative staff, 37 of the hospital's medical personnel and other workers yesterday were temporarily relieved of their duties on a rotational basis and sent to the Taipei City Public Servant Training Center in Wanfang for another 14-day quarantine period.
The 37 medical workers who had tended SARS patients in the hospital's complex B, were the first group of staff to be evacuated from the hospital.
All medical personnel and patients in complex B were also evacuated yesterday, so that the building could undergo thorough sterilization.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The remaining 500 personnel at the hospital's complex A have been ordered to stay in quarantine for another 14 days inside the hospital building.
Former Taipei City health bureau director Yeh Chin-chuan (
As of yesterday, the hospital had 12 new suspected SARS cases. The hospital now has a total of 117 reported cases.
Meanwhile the Jen Chi Hospital (
All of its staff members recalled were sent to the Taoyuan Veterans Hospital for quarantine yesterday, while its 18 SARS patients were sent to Taipei Veterans General Hospital and the Armed Forces Sungshan Hospital for treatment.
The Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday complained that Jen Chi Hospital had sent the SARS patients without notifying the hospital in advance. As a result some of the Veterans Hospital's staff might have been infected with SARS.
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