Seven countries have dropped warnings to their citizens against traveling to Taiwan now that the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has been contained, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
These countries, according to ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦), are: Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Israel, the UK, Vietnam and South Korea.
Chien also said he was encouraged by the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision on Saturday to designate Taiwan as an area with only limited local transmission of SARS.
The WHO's communicable disease surveillance and response report on Saturday said the WHO believes Taiwan is not a high-risk area, unlike Beijing, Guangdong Province, Shanxi Province, Toronto, Singapore and Hanoi.
Taiwan, the UK and the US, though listed as areas with limited local transmission, will remain on the "affected area" list.
Chien said the WHO's report on Saturday demonstrated to the world Taiwan's success in containing the outbreak of the deadly disease.
But the ministry said 13 countries continue to warn their nationals against traveling to Taiwan, including Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Mexico and Spain.
Officials from Kuala Lumpur and Taipei said Malaysia has retained its policy of temporarily freezing the issuance of visas to people from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Canada in a bid to contain the SARS outbreak.
"After we contacted the Malaysian foreign ministry and interior ministry, the instructions issued on Friday remain the same," said Cecilia Chang (張蘭新), spokesperson at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia.
"As of today, we haven't received any direct instructions," said an official at the Malaysia Friendship and Trade Center in Taipei.
Officials, businesspeople, expatriates with approval to work in Malaysia, investors and students with valid student passes from the five named nations and territories who have clean medical records will still be given visas.
The ministry yesterday also urged Singapore to remove Taiwan from a list of SARS-hit places it is advising travellers to avoid.
Singapore's Health Ministry last week said Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Hanoi and Toronto were locations to avoid "unless absolutely necessary."
"Such announcements lead to misperceptions about Taiwan's actual situation," the Taipei Representative office in Singapore said in a letter to The Straits Times.
Singapore has reported 12 dead, including two which have yet to be confirmed as SARS-related, and a total of 151 diagnosed cases.
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