The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Friday raised its travel advisory for China’s Shandong Province after a new H7N9 bird flu case was confirmed there on Thursday.
It is the first such case in Shandong since autumn last year, bringing the total number of confirmed H7N9 cases in China to 54, the CDC said.
In response, the CDC raised its advisory from the lowest to the second-highest level in its three-tier alert system.
Due to the spread of the H7N9 virus in China, the CDC has also issued the same level of alert for the Chinese provinces and municipalities of Zhejiang, Guangdong, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fujian and Shanghai.
The agency also issued a travel watch — its lowest advisory — for other Chinese provinces and cities (excluding Hong Kong and Macau).
Since 2013, 725 H7N9 bird flu cases have been reported in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Canada and Malaysia, among other countries and regions, according to the WHO.
Under the CDC’s system, a level one advisory urges travelers to follow standard hygiene practices in the affected areas, while a level two advisory urges visitors to take extra preventive measures. When a level three advisory is reached, travelers are advised against visiting the affected area.
In related news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday raised its travel alert for Tonga from gray — the lowest alert level — to yellow — the second-lowest on its four-color alert system — after the Pacific island country reported more than 500 suspected Zika virus cases and seven confirmed cases.
The ministry urged Taiwanese who plan to travel to Tonga to reconsider their travel itineraries and take precautions to prevent mosquito bites if a visit to Tonga is necessary, adding that pregnant women and those planning a pregnancy should postpone trips to the country.
The ministry also said that the WHO has warned of a possible outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.
The ministry has a gray alert in effect for the South Pacific countries of Fiji and Samoa, as well as the French territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
A yellow travel alert remains in effect for the Solomon Islands after the country reported five confirmed Zika virus cases and seven suspected cases, the ministry said.
In response to the Zika emergency, the CDC has also issued a travel alert for Thailand, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, as well as a travel watch for Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Gabon.
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