Among 52 travelers who arrived from China, Hong Kong or Macau with respiratory illness and received a voluntary pathogen screening test at an airport quarantine station, 32 tested positive for one of the five screened respiratory viruses, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the voluntary testing would likely continue until the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
As a surge in respiratory illnesses including pneumonia, mostly among children, has been reported in China, the CDC on Sunday last week notified international airport quarantine stations to increase alertness and encouraged travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau with flu-like symptoms to undergo voluntary pathogen testing.
The pathogen testing can detect 17 types of viruses and four types of bacteria in the respiratory tract, including influenza viruses, COVID-19 strains, rhinoviruses, Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacteria, adenoviruses and human metapneumovirus.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) and CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) yesterday visited Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to oversee the fever screening and respiratory pathogen testing operations at the quarantine station.
Hsueh said 52 travelers who arrived from China, Hong Kong or Macau received the respiratory pathogen testing between Sunday last week and Thursday, with 34 people testing positive for one of the five screened viruses.
Most of them had influenza viruses, followed by COVID-19 viruses, while the Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacteria many people have concerns over was not detected, he said.
The CDC’s data show that of the 34 cases, 20 (58.8 percent) had flu viruses, eight (23.5 percent) had COVID-19, three (8.8 percent) had adenoviruses, two (5.9 percent) had rhinoviruses and one (2.9 percent) a parainfluenza virus.
There have always been Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in Taiwan, with ups and downs in case numbers each year, but it has not led to an epidemic outbreak, Hsueh said, adding that as the incubation period for Mycoplasma pneumoniae can be long, if travelers get infected and were not detected at quarantine stations, it would be difficult to tell if they are imported or local cases after they develop symptoms and are diagnosed with the bacteria.
However, he said the centers would not designate Mycoplasma pneumoniae an imported bacterium that poses a risk of wide-scale epidemic outbreak, as there are no signs of it doing so.
Hsueh said the voluntary testing program was launched to detect if there are new variants or other novel pathogens, because although the Chinese government claims that its surge of respiratory illnesses are caused by known pathogens, the CDC still has concerns and hopes to confirm the claim through testing.
“The voluntary testing program will be shortened or extended according to the outbreak situation in China, but the current plan would be to continue it until the Lunar New Year holiday [in February],” he said. “Because travelers from China are expected to gradually increase before the Lunar New Year.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai