The Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the nation’s travel alert for Mexico to “red” as the number of suspected swine flu patients in the North American country kept rising yesterday.
A red alert means people should avoid all non-essential travel to Mexico until the crisis has subsided.
A yellow alert was issued for Canada and the US, with people traveling to these countries advised to exercise caution.
Taiwan’s representative office in Mexico City will continue to operate as usual, ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said.
Figures released by the Tourism Bureau showed that 78 Taiwanese tourists on a cruise tour were still on their way to Mexico yesterday.
Chen said three or four Taiwanese high school exchange students at King’s-Edgehill private high school in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, were among a group of 17 people who were quarantined amid concern that they might have contracted the H1N1 swine flu virus.
None of the 17 people was seriously ill, he added.
The ministry said 40 students from Taiwan were participating in an exchange program at the school.
The King’s-Edgehill School Web site said yesterday that four of its students had been confirmed to have contracted swine flu, and that some students had been released from quarantine.
At press time, the ministry remained unable to determine if the Taiwanese students were among the ones released from quarantine.
Liu Ching-jen (劉慶仁), director of the Ministry of Education’s Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations, said there were no Taiwanese students in Mexico.
“We have nonetheless urged officials at our representative offices in Los Angeles and Houston to alert Taiwanese students in the two cities because of their proximity to Mexico,” Liu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN AND FLORA WANG
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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