The World Health Organization (WHO) removed Hong Kong from its list of SARS-affected areas yesterday, but warned the territory to keep up its guard against future outbreaks that might put it back on the list.
Hong Kong's great concern is to avoid a repeat of what happened in Toronto, where a new outbreak was discovered after Canada's largest city was taken off the WHO's list. Two people died of SARS on Sunday in Toronto.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) said the territory was "of course happy" about the WHO announcement, but he expressed sadness over nearly 300 deaths from the disease and cautioned, "this could come again."
Hong Kong's removal from the list was expected. Sunday was the 20th day since the last confirmed SARS patient in Hong Kong was put in isolation in a hospital, the condition that qualified the territory to be taken off the list.
Only Beijing, Taiwan and Canada's largest city, Toronto, remain on the list following the ebbing worldwide of the SARS crisis since its peak in March and April. China said yesterday it had recorded no new SARS cases for 12 days and Taiwan said it has had no new cases for six days -- while neither had any new SARS deaths.
WHO has credited old-fashioned quarantines with breaking the back of the outbreak.
"Hong Kong, with its dense population and fluid border with China, had one of the hardest outbreaks to control. This success means that the whole world can now feel safer from the SARS threat," Dr. David Heymann, chief of communicable diseases at the Geneva-based WHO, said in a statement.
SARS has killed more than 800 people, most of them in Asia, since the disease emerged in southern China last November.
More than 8,400 were sickened in more than two dozen countries before the outbreak was controlled worldwide with officials isolating patients and screening travelers for the SARS symptoms of fever, dry cough and aches.
Still, street parties and minor events were planned to mark the occasion. Bars in the popular Lan Kwai Fong district planned to serve free champagne. Women in colorful carnival costumes danced on the waterfront; lion dancers prepared to perform.
But in general, celebrations were muted. Top officials reportedly felt that anything elaborate would be inappropriate given the toll the disease has taken on Hong Kong's people and its economy.
Tung marked the occasion by visiting Amoy Gardens, a crowded housing estate where more than 300 people fell sick with SARS before strict quarantines brought an outbreak there under control.
"Every time I think about those who passed away or sacrificed because of SARS I feel a great deal of sorrow," Tung said.
Also see story:
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique