The Taipei City Government said yesterday it would strengthen its epidemic prevention measures to fight enterovirus after confirming its first serious case this year.
Taipei City’s Health Department demanded municipal elementary schools and nursery schools suspend classes for 10 days if any child was infected with the disease. It also said it would carry out weekly disinfection of all classrooms in elementary and nursery schools for the next four weeks to halt the spread of the virus.
Chiu Wen-hsiang (邱文祥), department commissioner, said the city was enforcing stricter regulations on suspending classes compared with the central government, which asked schools to halt classes for 10 days if two children were found to be infected within a week.
PHOTO: YANG YI-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES
The announcement was issued after the first serious case of entovirus in the city was confirmed, Chiu said.
The department said a five-year-old boy living in Shilin District (士林) was sent to Taipei Veterans General Hospital on Wednesday, and the hospital confirmed yesterday that he had a serious enterovirus infection, marking the first serious enterovirus case in the city this year.
Chiu said the boy’s condition had stabilized and that he would be discharged soon.
Meanwhile, the Taipei County Health Bureau yesterday ordered the 29 health offices in the county’s townships and villages to instruct all kindergartens and primary schools to carry out disinfection work on all classrooms tomorrow.
The bureau also told the schools to clean their classrooms on a daily basis, warning that health officials would conduct spot checks to ensure that schools maintain proper sanitation procedures.
The moves were made amid an increasingly serious enterovirus outbreak nationwide. The Department of Health’s Centers for Disease Control said that 191 serious cases had been confirmed to date, with seven fatalities, five of whom were children under five years old.
In Taipei County, 18 suspected enterovirus cases had been reported as of Thursday, with eight later confirmed as serious, the Bureau of Statistics said.
Also yesterday, the bureau banned children under five from entering public indoor play areas. Businesses that violate the ban will be fined between NT$60,000 (US$1,980) and NT$300,000, the bureau said.
Enterovirus enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract. It is the most common cause of aseptic meningitis and can cause serious illness and death, especially in infants and people whose immune systems have been compromised.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
RSS