Railway authorities in China installed thermal scanners at some train stations to check passengers for fevers and keep the disease from spreading over their vast rail networks.
"The infectious outbreak is our call to arms. Time is lives," said a front-page article in the newspaper Beijing Daily.
The number of SARS deaths worldwide rose yesterday to at least 588.
Scientists credited quarantines for breaking the chain of transmission in Hong Kong.
Chinese University of Hong Kong researchers say the territory's SARS outbreak is losing momentum and should dwindle by next month or July and die out no later than October.
But Singapore, which had hoped to deem itself SARS-free as early as this week, may have suffered a setback amid reports of a new possible outbreak at its largest mental health facility, officials said.
The most recent confirmed SARS case in Singapore was on April 27, and the World Health Organization (WHO) had said it would announce the city-state's outbreak was under control if there were no new cases 20 days after the last reported infection.
The WHO lifted its travel warning against Toronto on April 30 after it decided the city's health authorities had contained the disease sufficiently.
More than 7,500 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have been reported worldwide.
In addition to the two fatalities, Hong Kong also reported just nine new cases of the disease yesterday. The territory's new cases have been in the single digits for 11 straight days.
In Beijing, the city government said its economic losses were estimated at 450 million yuan (US$54 million) in the first four months of this year, with arrivals of foreign visitors down some 60 percent.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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