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Taiwan, China Step Up
Measures to Contain SARS
Sun April 27, 2003 01:08 PM ET
By James Peng and Janet Guttsman
TAIPEI, Taiwan/TORONTO (Reuters) - Taiwan banned
visitors from areas most hit by SARS on Sunday and
Beijing closed theaters, cinemas and other
entertainment centers as the battle to contain the
spread of the deadly virus opened up new fronts.
"Fighting the epidemic is like fighting a war. We face
an invisible enemy," Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun told a
news conference that announced a ban on visitors from
China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, coupled with a
10-day quarantine for Taiwan residents returning from
these areas.
Announcing the most draconian moves to date to control
the often-fatal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Yu
said Taiwan would stop issuing visitor and resident
visas to people from the four SARS hot spots, and even
those with multiple-entry Taiwan visas would be denied
entry.
At least 316 people around the world have died from
SARS, which started in China's Guangdong province late
last year. Air travelers have since carried it to more
than 20 countries, triggering concern across the globe.
SARS, which kills about 6 percent of the people it
infects, has no known cure and a WHO official said on
Saturday it may take years to find a SARS vaccine.
Well over two-thirds of the deaths have been in China
and Hong Kong, the two worst-hit areas, although 21
people have died in Singapore and 20 in Canada.
There are more than 5,200 cases of the disease, and
thousands of people have been placed in quarantine for
the 10-day period that it takes the illness to develop.
Hotels, airlines and retailers already face slumping
sales and experts say the economic costs are bound to
rise.
Canada, the only country outside Asia where people
have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome,
dismissed Taiwan's ban as excessive and insisted it
would fight the measure.
"WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY"
"We believe that this measure is excessive and that it
will cause considerable inconvenience to the traveling
public," said Kimberly Phillips, a spokeswoman for
Canada's ministry of foreign affairs. "Our officials
are taking immediate steps to have this measure
withdrawn."
Canada is already fighting tooth and nail to persuade
the World Health Organization to abandon a
recommendation that travelers avoid nonessential
travel to the Toronto area.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said that the organization
would review its warning on Tuesday, but he offered no
assurances that the advisory would be lifted.
"We have received a lot of information from Health
Canada and we are reviewing it," Thomson told Reuters
in Geneva. "It is possible we may change it (the
warning). It is possible we may not."
In London, Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of
the World Health Organization, said the epidemic could
still be contained if countries tackled it seriously.
"I think we still have a window of opportunity,"
Brundtland told the BBC. "We have a chance to do it
now if we work together globally, across the countries,
and do what is necessary to control the outbreak."
Denying that the WHO's response to the outbreak was
excessive, she added: "We are doing what is prudent
and necessary ... to control a new disease before it
becomes global and constant as an added burden to
humanity."
China initially came in for fierce criticism for its
sluggish response to the illness but it has since
sacked its health minister and the Beijing mayor for
mishandling the SARS crisis.
TOUGHER LINE
In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have taken a
tougher line, closing Beijing schools last week and
following that with a decision on Sunday to close the
capital's theaters, cinemas and other entertainment
centers.
"It is very hard to make the ventilation, disinfection,
and other conditions in entertainment outlets in
Beijing meet the demands needed to prevent SARS," the
Beijing Youth Daily quoted a city cultural official as
saying.
Beijing, which has 14 million residents, has reported
1,114 infections and 56 SARS deaths.
Taiwan has reported just one death, but an outbreak at
a Taipei hospital last week propelled the number of
probable cases in Taiwan to 55 from 33, and raised the
number of suspect cases to 72 from about 50.
It also prompted the travel ban -- a bitter blow to
trading partners like Hong Kong.
"Taiwan should consider lifting such measures in the
interest of facilitating commercial, tourism and other
exchanges between Hong Kong and Taiwan," a Hong Kong
government spokesman said.
NEW DEATHS IN CHINA, HONG KONG
The disease has also caused widespread alarm in
mainland China and Hong Kong. China recorded nine new
deaths on Sunday, taking the toll to 131 out of about
3,000 cases, while Hong Kong raised its fatality count
by 12 to 133, with 1,543 cases.
The rising death tolls provided a somber backdrop to a
weekend meeting of health representatives from China,
Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and 10 Southeast Asian
states.
The officials agreed to impose checks on all departing
passengers at airports.
Canada said it might install infrared devices at two
key airports. The devices, already in use at some
Asian airports, can detect the high fever that is a
symptoms of the disease.
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