The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is preparing to list a viral pneumonia of an unknown cause originating from China’s Wuhan as a category 5 communicable disease.
Fifty-nine cases had been reported in China as of yesterday, with seven showing severe symptoms, it said.
The CDC on Tuesday last week started conducting onboard inspections of direct flights from Wuhan, it added.
Photo: CNA
It has conducted inspections on 13 flights, covering a total of 1,193 passengers and crew members, the CDC said.
Nine people were found with symptoms, which later improved, it said, adding that local health departments are tracking their recovery.
One person was found to have been infected with the H3N2 flu virus, while another, who is being tested, had been to Wuhan, but had not visited the Huanan Seafood City market and had not come into contact with poultry, it added.
Listing the illness as a category 5 communicable disease would allow the CDC to quarantine suspected cases according to the guidelines for communicable disease prevention, it said.
This would eliminate instances of people refusing to be quarantined, it said, adding that it would complete the listing as soon as possible.
The CDC said that it would also raise the alert internationally and at “small three links” ports.
It would ask passengers with a fever whether they had traveled to Wuhan, it said.
The CDC on Tuesday issued a level 1 “watch” health notice for travelers to Wuhan due to the outbreak, saying that it has also asked health professionals in the city for information to better understand the disease.
People planning to travel to Wuhan and its surrounding areas should take precautions, including avoiding direct exposure to livestock, raw meat markets and infected people, it said, adding that they should also frequently wash their hands with soap and wear a surgical mask when entering crowded areas.
The CDC on Monday said that SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome have been excluded as possible causes of the outbreak, but added that the cause has not yet been identified.
“There is limited information to determine the overall risk of this reported cluster of pneumonia of unknown etiology,” said the WHO’s report on “pneumonia of unknown cause in China,” which was released on Sunday.
It advised against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China based on the information available.
The WHO recommended public health measures, and surveillance of possible influenza and severe acute respiratory infections, and urged travelers experiencing respiratory illness either during or after travel to seek medical attention and share their travel history with their healthcare provider.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS