The Taipei City Department of Health yesterday announced that a woman in her 40s has contracted measles — the first case this year — adding that so far, 85 people who had contact with the patient showed no signs of being infected.
Division for Disease and Control and Prevention Director Chen Shao-ching (陳少卿) said the woman visited China from March 2 to March 5, with symptoms of fever and weakness beginning on March 12, followed by rashes starting on Wednesday last week.
She said the communicable period of the disease was between March 12 and Sunday last week, and the woman visited three clinics and one hospital during this period, so the department has put medical practitioners and patients at these locations as well as family members and colleagues of the woman on a watch list of possible infections.
From a total of 231 people on the list, 85 have been declared symptom-free, the department said, adding that it would continue to track the health of other people on the list until April 7.
The woman took the Songshan-Xindian Line of Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system between Nanjing Sanmin Station and Zhongshan Station — at 8:30am from Nanjing Sanmin and 6:30pm from Zhongshan — during the communicable period, so if anyone who took the MRT during that period is suffering from fever, rashes or measles-like symptoms, the person should put on a facial mask and visit a doctor as soon as possible, Chen said.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that can be spread by droplets passed via direct contact or in the air, and it is in the second category of the nation’s notifiable infectious diseases, Chen said, adding that vaccination is an effective form of prevention.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit
HOSPITAL VISITS: Shin Kong Mitsukoshi pledged to give the families of the four people who died NT$11m each and provide support for staff working at the time The central government would assist local governments to enhance public safety, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as he visited people in hospital who were injured in an explosion at a department store in Taichung on Thursday. A suspected gas explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang department store in Taichung at 11:33am on Thursday, killing four people and injuring 36. Of the 40 casualties, 39 were hospitalized, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed. Three died after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the data showed. As of 6am yesterday, 25 of those injured had been discharged from hospital, leaving 11