New Zealand health authorities on yesterday added Taiwan to a list of places it has cautioned its citizens from visiting because of the SARS epidemic.
The health ministry said visitors to Taiwan, along with Singapore and Toronto, now had a moderate risk of catching the deadly pneumonia-like virus and advised New Zealanders to "consider" postponing non-essential travel.
All of China and Hong Kong are subject to the highest level of warning, with firm advice not to travel at present.
A woman who could be New Zealand's first SARS victim was under observation in Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings after reporting symptoms of the disease following her return from an organized tour to China a week ago.
None of the other 34 members of her party has shown any sign of SARS, but New Zealand's director of public health, Colin Tukuitonga, has criticized the tour leaders, saying they should have cut the three-week trip short as the deadly disease spread in China.
He told Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper there was a "high possibility" the woman would be confirmed with the disease, adding, "If this proves to be a SARS case, it is putting the whole of New Zealand at risk."
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