The Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday confirmed that Taiwan's latest suspected case of SARS was a false alarm.
"This morning we flew samples from Kinmen to Taiwan, and lab results done at both the CDC labs and at contracted labs proved that the man was free of SARS," CDC Deputy Director Shih Wen-yi (
A 79-year-old Kinmen resident surnamed Tsai was admitted to a hospital Thursday with a fever after returning to Taiwan from vacationing in China, sparking worries about a resurgence of SARS in Taiwan.
"While tests for viruses can return negative or positive results depending on when the test is conducted, these few days are the peak potency of the SARS virus and should have returned positive test results if the man had indeed contracted SARS," Shih said.
The man is no longer required to remain in a hospital isolation ward, but the CDC has yet to identify the respiratory con-dition's cause.
In addition, Shih reported that 51 of the 61 tour group members had been contacted.
"While this SARS case was a false alarm, we are glad that we found a hole in our border surveillance efforts. In the future, all who return to Taiwan via the `small three links' will be subject to the same policies as those that currently apply to returning travelers from Beijing and Anhui," Shih said.
"In addition, tour-group leaders will be held responsible for honestly filling out health forms on behalf of the entire group," Shih said.
He explained that none of the tour group members had reported visiting Beijing, but excused the tour members because they were all over 70 years of age.
The fine for dishonest or inaccurate reporting of one's travel itinerary ranges from NT$1,500 to NT$7,500.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching