World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland will declare Taiwan free of SARS today, the organization said yesterday.
The Geneva-based WHO scheduled an announcement via a global telephone briefing for 3pm today, an Agence France-Press report said.
"Unless other cases are reported by then, Taiwan will have gone 20 straight days without a new infection of SARS, meeting the final requirement for removal from the WHO's list of areas with local transmission," the report said.
Taiwan is the only place left on the WHO's list of SARS-affected areas.
The Cabinet's SARS Prevention and Relief Committee, set up at the end of April to combat the disease and which met on a daily basis when the epidemic intensified, will only meet once a week starting next week.
The WHO was to convene a meeting in Geneva to discuss the issue at midnight last night Taiwan time, said Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), co-chairman of the committee.
Yesterday was the 19th consecutive day that no probable SARS cases were reported. According to the WHO, Taiwan will be off the list 20 days after the onset date of the nation's last SARS case, which was June 15.
The committee said that temperature checks would be continued at airports.
"Temperature checks in CKS International Airport will continue as a preventive measure because China's reports on its SARS situation are still not transparent enough," Lee said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications will decide when to stop the temperature checks, Lee said.
Domestic airports will continue checking passengers' temperatures for 10 days after Taiwan is off the list, he said.
Temperature checks in hospitals will continue for 20 days after the WHO declares Taiwan free of SARS, he said.
"Twenty days is twice the length of the incubation period of the disease," Lee said.
He described as "an incorrect move" a decision by National Taiwan University Hospital, the hospital most experienced in treating the disease, to stop temperature checks yesterday.
Lee said the committee would try to persuade the hospital to start taking temperatures again, arguing that surveys indicated that patients favor hospitals that continue temperature checks.
"Sixty percent of people interviewed said they did not want to go to hospitals that did not implement temperature checks," Lee said.
Chen Chien-jen (
"Food workers dealing with cooked food are obliged to wear face masks. Those who flout the regulation could be fined NT$30,000 to NT$150,000," Chen said.
Meanwhile, the health department realizes that SARS may emerge again in a few months when winter comes, said Tan Kai-yuan (
"Chen has said the coming two to three months are the key period for the department to step up measures to prevent the reappearance of the disease," Tan said.
A national medical conference is due to be held in October when health units across the nation will meet to discuss how to keep SARS at bay, Tan said.
Also see story:
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 Xinyi A13 Department Store 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 at
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
‘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)