The head of the Cabinet's SARS task force said yesterday that the transmission of SARS in the country's hospitals was more serious than previously thought following the discovery of SARS clusters at more of the nation's hospitals.
"The committee had to re-evaluate the whole SARS transmission situation here, as hospital infections are more serious than expected," said Lee Ming-liang (
"Last week I assumed that SARS infections could be gradually brought under control, but given the current hospital infections, I have to modify my assumption," he said. "The rate of hospital transmission is in an urgent state. Preventing hospital transmission and community transmission are the two priorities in current anti-SARS work."
The Center for Disease Control reported 26 more probable cases yesterday, the highest daily total since the epidemic reached the country.
A total of 264 probable cases have been reported and 281 suspected cases. A total of 34 deaths have reported to the WHO.
Lee said yesterday that starting next week, only information of SARS probable cases and deaths will be made public in a bid to be consistent with the WHO's classifications.
Lee's statements came in response to a cluster of SARS infections that appeared on Wednesday at National Taiwan University Hospital and Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
The Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei yesterday also reported that seven of its staff members may have contracted the disease.
Lee said that SARS could only be contained with the full cooperation of the public, who should not withhold their medical histories to hospitals when seeking treatment.
"Many patients did not fully disclose their SARS-related medical histories to doctors, who in some cases performed intubation on patients without knowing that the people been exposed to SARS," Lee said yesterday.
Lee said that based on evaluations by medical experts, there was still no need to seal off Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
"It hasn't reached the point where the hospital needs to be sealed, but we don't rule out the possibility," Lee said, adding that Taiwanese and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts had been consulted.
Lee said the contingency plan for the hospital included suspending services at the emergency room and for outpatients, while adding a SARS emergency care service.
In addition, all the patients and their relatives as well as the medical personnel would undergo compulsory quarantine.
A further measure would be to evacuate as many inpatients as possible. Patients too sick to be moved would be kept in a ward on the hospital's 10th floor. Suspected SARS patients would be isolated on the 11th and 12th floors, and probable cases on the 13th floor.
The task force yesterday also announced that 10 hospitals across the country would be given the responsibility of accepting suspected SARS patients.
The 10 hospitals would form a second line of treatment for possible SARS patients, with local clinics diagnosing initial symptoms of the disease and large hospitals treating probable cases.
Most of the 10 hospitals are county-level or municipal hospitals and military hospitals, the task force said.
"It has been a bad habit of Taiwanese people to do hospital shopping. That is why the National Taiwan University Hospital emergency room had to be shut down because it was overloaded," said Chang Hong-jen (
"Patients with or without any symptoms swarmed to the medical centers for check-ups, and the crowded emergency room led to the hospital infection," Chang said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS