The Taipei City Government announced yesterday that Taipei Deputy Mayor Pai Hsiou-hsiung (白秀雄) will head a special investigation into the possible mishandling of a SARS outbreak at Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital (和平醫院).
Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma said the investigation will be carried out by the ethics bureau and the Bureau of Personnel.
"To ensure that the public is getting a fair enquiry, we will also invite experts from outside the city government to join us. These experts will be chosen from three particular fields -- law, medicine and customer protection," Ma said.
Ma also said that it was for the external legal and supervising parties to determine whether the city government should be blamed for SARS infections in the city and promised to cooperate fully with all investigations.
The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office is also proceeding with legal investigations into the containment of the virus, focusing inquiries on the sacked superintendent of the hospital Wu Kang-wen (
Meanwhile, residents in Hua-chang Public Housing Complex were released from home quarantine at midday yesterday.
The residents still have to wear facemasks and have their temperatures taken on a daily basis.
After health officials ruled two days ago that there was no danger of community transmission from Huachang, leader of the Cabinet's anti-SARS task force Lee Ming-liang (李明亮) told the city government it could decide by itself when to release residents from their four-day quarantine.
The city government had originally wanted to release residents earlier in the week but put plans on hold after two of the residents who had been moved to Chiho Public Housing Complex came down with high fevers.
However, on the advice of medical experts city officials passed on the good news to residents yesterday morning.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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