Taiwan yesterday issued a Level-2 travel advisory for five Chinese provinces and two metropolitan areas after confirming a day earlier the first H7N9 avian influenza case reported locally, but contracted in China.
The Central Epidemic Command Center announced the listing of the five Chinese provinces — Jiangsu, Henan, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shandong — and two cities — Shanghai and Beijing — in its Level-2 travel alert after an inter-ministerial meeting.
“We referred to the three-level travel advisory system used by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when deciding to issue a Level-2 advisory for the seven destinations,” said Centers for Disease Control Director-General Chang Feng-yee (張烽義), head of the epidemic command center.
PHOTO: DAVID CHANG, EPA
Under the system, a Level-1 advisory urges those who are bound for listed destinations to exercise vigilance and take health precautions, while a Level-2 alert calls for would-be travelers to maintain a high degree of caution and take strengthened protective measures, especially when they visit certain high-risk places.
A Level-3 travel advisory warns against travel to listed destinations.
“Because all seven of the listed destinations have reported confirmed H7N9 cases, people planning to travel there should pay close attention to their personal health and hygiene,” Chang said.
Tourists visiting these areas are advised to take extra precautions, and risks to travelers are higher in certain locations within those areas, the center added.
In light of the nation’s first confirmed H7N9 case, reported on Wednesday, the Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday also announced it would move forward the date banning traditional markets from live poultry slaughter by one month, from its original date of June 17.
Starting in May 17, all traditional markets with the exception of outlying islands and rural areas will be barred from slaughtering livestock on site in markets, the council said.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) dismissed speculation that Taipei will launch the ban today, as some local media outlets quoted COA Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) as saying earlier yesterday.
“What we will do starting on Friday is to enhance communication with vendors that still offer live poultry slaughtering at traditional markets and encourage them to sell frozen meat instead,” he said.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Chen -Hsiung-wen (陳雄文), who also serves as the director of Taipei’s H7N9 emergency response center, said the city government would meet with directors of traditional market associations and 177 vendors that continued to sell live poultry to explain the ban.
To smooth the implementation of the ban, the city government will give a NT$100,000 subsidy to poultry vendors that become frozen poultry suppliers.
Those who decide to quit the business altogether will receive a subsidy of NT$600,000 for returning their vending booths to city markets.
Chen said vendors who insisted on selling live poultry after May 17 will be fined for violating the Animal Industry Act (畜牧法).
According to Taipei City’s Market Administration Office, between 50,000 and 60,000 birds are slaughtered in the city a day, with between 20,000 and 30,000 slaughtered at Huanan Public Market in Wanhua District (萬華).
Chen said that the city would start sending all live poultry to the public market, which has 14 slaughtering lines, to handle the poultry slaughter.
He added that the emergency response center would hold a cross-departmental meeting regularly to monitor the situation.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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