The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reported three more SARS cases as officials looked into the cause of an outbreak at Yangming Hospital (YMH) on Thursday.
The death toll from SARS remained unchanged at 81 for the 10th straight day.
The total number of SARS-probable cases fell from 678 the previous day to 677, after four cases were reclassified.
Superintendent of Taipei YMH Wang Tai-lung (
"Yangming Hospital is 20 years old and because of that its trafficking plan is not ideal and its buildings are not equipped with the best negative pressure isolation rooms available," Wang said.
"Moreover, the care workers have become a blind spot within the hospital's focus area. They are not hospital employees but the hospital should also pay attention to them," Wang said.
Wu Wen-hao (
Yesterday there were four more cases reported in YMH, pushing the number of SARS patients to 11. Five were probable cases and six were suspected cases. All of them had been transferred to the Armed Force's Sung Shan Hospital for further treatment.
Of the 11 cases, four are care workers and seven are hospital patients, according to the hospital's deputy superintendent Dr. Yang Wen-li (楊文理).
According to further investigations carried out by the BOH, it is suspected that the mother of an infected noodle vendor from Hsinchuang (新莊) might have been the index patient in the hospital.
The Hsinchuang woman stayed in the hospital from May 17 to 27, while the deceased 90-year-old woman, surnamed Shen, was admitted to YMH on April 9 and started developing a very high fever on May 25.
Their stays in the hospital overlapped and there is a possibility that Shen contracted the disease from the Hsinchuang woman, because they were treated in the same negative pressure room. Shen then became a source of other transmissions.
YMH, however, tentatively excluded the possibility of Shen being a SARS patient, said Wu. The BOH was conducting further investigations to get a clearer picture of the infection route within the hospital.
While YMH's cluster infection raised tension just as SARS seemed to be receding, a few days ago there were fears of a community outbreak in South Airport Community (南機場) in Chungcheng district.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS