China promised more doctors, hospitals and money to fight the flu-like virus in rural areas as the Health Ministry announced four new SARS fatalities, raising the death toll on the mainland to 271, and 52 new cases of infection -- the lowest one-day increase since April.
Hong Kong said SARS had infected another five people and killed seven in the previous 24 hours.
The new deaths included a 36-year-old woman healthcare assistant suspected of having worked with SARS patients, the third Hong Kong healthcare worker to die of the disease.
Among the new patients was a nurse at a hospital with no previous staff infections.
The new figures took Hong Kong's cumulative cases to 1,703 and the death toll to 234, a hospital official told a news conference. Meanwhile, 32 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the total number of discharged patients to 1,160.
Authorities tracked down 24 people from Hong Kong who had attended a recent wedding in southern China. The father of the groom was later confirmed to have contracted SARS leading to fears guest might also have been infected.
Officials are trying to keep severe acute respiratory syndrome from spreading to the countryside, home to many of China's 1.3 billion people.
Rural areas account for only a fraction of its more than 5,100 SARS cases, said officials from the health and finance ministries. But they called for stepped up efforts to shield villages, especially by keeping migrant workers from carrying the virus in from cities.
``We haven't seen a major spread into the countryside, but we can't tell whether that might change in future,'' Qi Xiaoqiu, director of the Heath Ministry's Department of Disease Control, said at a news conference.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary